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Author
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Topic: Shuttle Carrier Aircraft mid-air refueling
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oly Member Posts: 1280 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2015
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posted 09-23-2021 08:07 PM
quote: Originally posted by mmcmurrey: ...in the period we are talking over 80'-90's the notion that we could pump fuel back up into a boom was not possible.
The 171st Air Refueling Wing document states otherwise... A KC-135 R/T tanker not only can refuel other planes but also has the capability to siphon fuel back into the tanker from certain receivers. This process is called reverse air refueling. ...as does the KC135 Flying Operations Procedures: 15.2.6. Reverse AAR will be accomplished only in an emergency or for operational necessity, or IAW FTU or USAFWS syllabus training (T-2). As I stated, on the aircraft I was involved with, there was no "refueling bladder" as the system fed via the refueling aircraft fuel system.The air-to-air refueling bladder is a method of quarantining the tanked fuel from the ferried fuel, or "cargo" and they are a cheap and easy way of having a container that can be regularly and rapidly loaded and unloaded, that does not require supercritical reliability on tank venting so that tank pressures are balanced as the volume of liquid is depleted. Bladders can be useful for placing the cargo of fuel within the aircraft CofG as they segregate the aircraft fuel and cargo fuel, simplifying the aircrew's workload of managing weight shift and fuel distribution. They are not a prerequisite design requirement for air-to-air refueling. Tanker crew are less likely to damage or destroy the aircraft fuel system through negligence or user error if the cargo fuel is segregated from the main aircraft fuel system Sorry, I have no first hand knowledge of how the USAF achieved presurising the receptacle but suspect that it involves applying fuel pressure from fuel transfer pumps to the fuel line from the receptacle to tank, an easily achievable concept that would require some switching/diverter valves and plumbing. |
LM-12 Member Posts: 3602 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 09-24-2021 11:20 PM
Not sure how accurate this is: The HAER No. TX-116-L document has this paragraph about SCA inflight refueling on page 8:
In early 1984, DFRC conducted a series of inflight refueling tests to evaluate the process for application to the SCA. Two tankers, a KC-135 and a KC-10, handled the refueling of the SCA. Center personnel mounted the Enterprise atop NASA 905 in the mate-demate device (MDD) for six of the nine test flights. Both the Enterprise and SCA were instrumented with pressure sensors and accelerometers to evaluate structural effects of the refueling.The footnote refers to this article: “Inflight Refueling Tests for Shuttle Ferry Flights,” X-Press, February 3, 1984, 3-4 I guess they planned for nine test flights but never got that far.
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