Tanker_aircraft

List of tanker aircraft

List of tanker aircraft

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This is a list of tanker aircraft used for aerial refuelling of another aircraft whilst in powered flight.

A Russian Air Force (VVS) Ilyushin Il-78 tanker aircraft with its two hose and drogue refuelling devices extended is followed by two Sukhoi Su-24 attack jet aircraft simulating aerial refuelling, flanked by four smaller Yakovlev Yak-130 trainer/fighter aircraft, from the celebration flypast during the Moscow Victory Day Parade of 2010.

Refueling methods

Main article: Aerial refueling
Looped hose
The first commercial method employed a hose which was held slack in a trailing half-loop behind both aircraft. The receiving aircraft flew just below the tanker and deployed a steel line, which the tanker caught with its own grappling line and drew in. The tanker then connected the first steel line to the refueling hose and paid it out as the receiving aircraft reeled it back in.
Probe-and-drogue
The tanker trails a flexible hose with a stabilising drogue on the end and the receiving aircraft manoeuvers to insert a short probe into the receptacle in the drogue.
Flying boom
The tanker extends a hinged telescopic boom with aerodynamic control surfaces on its end. An operator "flies" it to match up with a receptacle on the receiving aircraft, which then moves forwards to make the connection.
Wing-to-wing
A hybrid method in which the tanker trails a flexible hose from a wing and the receiving aircraft catches it in a hooked receptacle under one of its own wings.
Buddy refueling
An aircraft type is fitted with both supply and receiving hardware, so that one aircraft can refuel another of the same type.

These images illustrate various aerial refuelling methods.

  • First successful mid-air refuelling in 1923.
  • Looped hose refuelling during round-the-world flight.
  • Helicopter with refuelling probe approaching the drogue trailed by a tanker.
  • Probe inserted in drogue for refuelling.
  • Buddy refuelling.
  • Flying boom refuelling.
  • Flying boom refuelling at night.

List of aircraft

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References

  1. [1]
    "Aerial Refueling". www.CentennialOfFlight.gov. U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  2. [2]
    Richard K. Smith (1998). "Seventy-Five Years of Inflight Refueling – Highlights, 1923–1998" (PDF). www.AirForceHistory.HQ.AF.Mil. Air Force History and Museums Program – United States Air Force. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2008. Retrieved 17 November 2009.
  3. [3]
    Gordon, Yefim; Dexter, Keith (2002). Polikarpov's Biplane Fighters. Hinckley, Leicestershire: Midland Publishing. ISBN 1-85780-141-5.
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