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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0296.PDF
250 F1IG HT MARCH 4TH, 1948 The Possibility ties of Flight Refuelling Discussed By ROY PEARLA AT the fourth attempt to refuel in flight on a NorthAtlantic scheduled crossing the operation was for^ the first time unsuccessful; but the failure served to expose the complications and difficulties associated with the scheme, without prejudice to the theory that it is a practical proposition and possibly a future necessity. The Ministry of. Civil Aviation have considered for some time that flight refuelling should be thoroughly investigated, and after negotiations with B.S.A.A. and later with B.O.A.C. it was agreed to fly experimental schedules across the South and the North Atlantic. The former have already been described. The analysis of the North Atlantic ' trials will undoubtedly be interesting and provide useful data, but in my opinion they can in no way be conclusive. On February 14th the fourth crossing was made. The receiver Liberator was due to leave London Airport at 05.00 hours, refuel for the first time 500 miles west of Ireland, and for the second time off the coast of New- foundland. Lancastrian tankers owned by the M.C.A. and operated by Flight Refuelling, Ltd., were based one each at the three airports: Shannon, Gander and Goose Bay. On the Saturday morning the weather situation was one of the most complicated that could be encountered, even for the North Atlantic, with westerly winds reaching 90 m.p.h. After the first flight plan had been drawn, it was found impossible for the Liberator to fly the Great-Circle route from London to Montreal with a safety range margin, even after refuelling twice in the air. Captain E. H. Jones then decided to fly a pressure-pattern route, which would take us North and very close to Iceland. London Airport does not forecast weather for the North Atlantic ; this is normally done at Shannon and Prestwick, and a new weather map was necessary for the flight plan for the Northerly route. Since B.O.A.C. have not yet practised flight refuelling at night, and as further delay at London risked darkness at the point of the second refuelling, it was decided to fly to Iceland, land, refuel, and then proceed to Montreal, refuel- ling for the second time off New- foundland. We left London Air- port soon after 6 o'clock and landed at Keflavik ; after refuel- ling we flew on a direct track over Goose Bay to Montreal. At the nOr PEARL recently travelled as al\ passenger in the Liberator used as the "receiver" aircraft in the flight-refuelling trials now being made between this country and Canada. Here he records some of his im-pressions of the problems associated with this new method of combining long rangewith high payloads. In a subsequent article he will write of the interestingthings he saw while he was in Canada. time the westerly interception was due to be made, we in the Liberator were flying in cloud at about 10,000ft, and dusk was creeping on. The tanker had taken off from Gander in very poor weather conditions, had climbed up through ice to about 12,000 feet and reported its position 25 or 30 miles behind. From that distance the closing speed would have been extremely slow, even had the Liberator been throttled right back, and the captain con- sidered that, in the circumstances of poor visibility and approaching darkness, refuelling should be abandoned. The Liberator proceeded to Montreal, and the tanker, in the face of difficult weather, landed at Seven Islands, about : 250 miles from base. The problems of flight refuelling fall under three head- ings : economic, operational and psychological. The economic case has been put quite adequately by Flight Refuelling, Limited, and since no operator has disproved the claims for economy, it must be accepted until further' proof is available, that the increase in payload more than compensates for the cost of operating tankers. When the present trials are completed it will be possible to assess the gain in payload which would have been achieved had the- operations been commercial. Operational • Captain J. Percy, line captain for the Atlantic Divi- sion of B.O.A.C., was made responsible for the North Atlantic flight-refuelling experiments. He has had vast flying experience particularly over the North Atlantic; and he personally made the first refuelling flight about three weeks ago. At Dorval I read the standing orders for the experimental unit and discussed with Captain Percy the organization behind the experiments. There can be no doubt that flight refuelling over the North Atlantic will be thoroughly tested and analysed by the Corporation; the scheme will be given a fair trial since it might conceivably lead to greater economy in the near or distant future. Safety, however, must be safeguarded, and that demands the utmost care in planning, and the system must be fully justified by economy in operation. In order to obtain economy, the transport aircraft must refuel as near as possible to the opti-
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