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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0171.PDF
JANUARY 27TH, 1949 FLIGHT WEIGHT AFTER REFUELLING FUELTRANSFERREDFUEL TRANSFERRED WEIGHT REFUELLING PAKE-OFF WEIGH! REFUELLING POINT 1 ST REFUELLINGPOINT 2O (O —TAILWIND: 2O HEADWIND WIND-KNO2O 3O 4OHEADWIND-KNOTS WEIGHT AFTER REFUELLING REFUELLINjyO WEIGWT AFTER /REFUELLING TAKE-OFF/ WEIGHT 1 ST REFUELLINGPOINT TAKE-OFF WEIGHT 2O 3O 4O HEADWIND - KNOTS WEIGHT AFTER REFUELLING WEIGHT AFTER R FUELTRANSFERRED FUEL TRANSFERRED TAKE-OFF WEIGHT is REFUELLING POINT1ST REFUELLING POINT 2O 1O O TAILWIND— •2O 3O *O HEADWIND KNOTS WEIGHT AFTER REFUELLING WEIGHT AFTER REFUELLINGTAKE-OFF WEIGHT REFUELLINGPOiN TAKE OFF WEIGHTFUEL TRANSFERRED1 ST REFUELLING POINT £20100 > —TAILWIND— Fig. 7. 2O 3O 4O HEAWIND KNOTS London-New York non-stop, with a payload of 13,300 Ib Fig. 8. New York-London non-stop, with a payload of 13,300 Ib. that for a radius of 4,000 miles the unrefuulled bomber could carry no bombs at all, whereas if it were refuelled half-way to the target, the bomb load would be 16,000 lb. At 3,000 mil*s, the aircraft miles -flown per pound of bomb load were 0.6 and 0.33. 3.00O 1OOO 2OO 4OO 6OO 8OO 1.OOO DISTANCE FROM START TO REFUELLING POINT -NAUTICAL MILES Probably one of the most outstanding merits of flight-refuelling bombers was the reduction in the number of aircraft required, aria! hence a corresponding reduction in air- crew, ground crew and accessorie?, to bomb a given objective. Assuming that it is re- quired to drop a load of about 2,000 short tons, on a target 3,000 miles away. For a mission using unre- fuelled bombers, 400 aircraft would be in- volved, all of which would have to fly over the target area, each carrying 10,000 lb of bombs. By using refuelling in flight, Fig. 9. Payload dia- gram for refuelled Her- mes. Route length 2,000 miles : allow- ance, two hours' still- air cruising. 12OO the number would be reduced to 308, only half of which would be involved in flying over the target area. The other half (the tankers) would only be required to fly half- way to the target. The reduction in losses would be most noticeable, and the attack could be made in much greater concentra- tion. Flight refuelling could also be applied with advantage to reconnaissance, especially such as are carried out by Coastal Com- mand when patrolling areas in the vicinity of convoys, when it would be possible to secure a large increase in the duration of time patrolling the convoy area. For re- fuelling fighters, the advantages are less easy to assess, but even here, Mr. Latimer-Need- ham thought, there were several applica- tions, such as for increasing operational range, for ferrying, and for bomber support. Military air transport, Mr. Latimer- Needham said, falls into two categories: paratroop and supply carrying. Both could benefit from flight refuelling. In the former, adequate supplies could always be flown in after the landing of the airborne troops. The second case was very similar, so far as regular supply services were concerned, to civil air transport. B 23
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