FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1821.PDF
944 The Harrow tanker and the Empire flying boat refuel over the Solent before the start of the first trans- Atlantic air - refuel- led service in 1939. The 0-29 three- pointer refuelling the probe-equipped 6-29. FLIGHT REFUELLING ... Sir Alan Cobham entered the lists officially in 1932, and, aftersome experiments with two D.H.9s, he embarked on a non-stop England-to-India flight with the prototype Airspeed Courierrefuelled by a Handley Page W.10 over Malta and a R.A.F. Victoria and Valencia at other points. The assisted take-offprinciple was initially employed and the Courier was for the first time cleared for a take-off weight of 3,700 lb and for flightat 5,050 lb. Sir Alan took off with S/L. Helmore and immediately received his overload and headed for Malta, where W/C.Johnson was waiting for him with the W.10. They duly made contact and fuel was passed on track outward bound from Malta.When the Courier's load was almost at its maximum level, how- ever, a pin in the throttle linkage fell out, and Sir Alan wasobliged to make an almost power-less wheels-up forced landing at Hal Far. He just made it. The attempt had then to beabandoned, and after selling the W.10, "Johnnie" Johnson brought the Courier back to England. The method of making contact between the two aircraft wasthat the tanker lowered a weighted line to the operator in the receiver while the two aircraft flew one above the other. Theline was then used to haul in the hose and fuel transfer was by gravity. The first weight used was a paint tin filled with leadshot, and the crooked end of a walking stick was employed to catch it. But one day the paint tin fouled the Courier's aileronsand very nearly brought disaster; and recourse was thereafter made to a variety of frangible rubber water-containers whichcould be caught by hand. If these fouled the aircraft, they immediately burst, causing no damage. The company called Flight Refuelling, Ltd., was formed in1934, and Sir Alan began serious development of more advanced refuelling techniques and associated equipment, including thepredecessors of the automatic shut-off valves which are now pro- duced for air and ground pressure-refuelling purposes. ImperialAirways became interested, and the Shell company backed The North Atlantic service with a Liberator and the Lucky Lady's round- the-world flight (above right and right) used the loop-hose system. FLIGHT, 23 December 1955 Sir Alan. Various experiments were carried out with VickersVirginia tankers and Wapiti receivers, and Wallace tankers and Hart receivers. The system was demonstrated at the RAF.Display. Meanwhile, Flight Refuelling, Ltd., moved to Ford, Sussex,in 1936, and continued experiments with a variety of military aircraft. But the first practical expression of the commercialphilosophy behind the air refuelling concept was the transatlantic flying boat service run by Imperial Airways and projected in1937. No boat existed which could carry a reasonable payload with safety non-stop across the Atlantic, and of the three methods—catapulting, pick-a-back take-off, and air refuelling—which were projected, the last-named was put into practice in the formof a scheduled service. First experiments were made with the C-class boat, Cambria, refuelled by an A.W.23, using what cameto be known as the loop hose system. This now consisted of a special grapnel trailed on a long line by the receiver, which wasengaged by another grapnel fired on another line from a special gun by the tanker. The hose was then wound in by a winch andautomatically connected. Fuel was passed by gravity while the tanker flew above and to one side of the receiver. Development continued through 1938 and two boats, Cabotand Caribou, were converted on the production line. The plan was to land and refuel at Foynes, near Shannon, take-off againand accept a fuel overload from a Harrow tanker based at Shannon. Course was set for Newfoundland and one of two otherHarrow tankers baijd at Gander and Goose passed more fuel to allow the boat to continue to Botwood, where it landed again,refuelled, and finished the journey to New York. On August 5th, 1939, Caribou, piloted by Captain Kelly Rogers,took on 1,000 gallons in 16 minutes shortly after leaving Foynes, and continued with another refuelling to Botwood. Altogether,16 crossings were made, and with a rate of flow of just over 100 gal/min, refuelling took less than eight minutes each time,with five minutes spent making contact. On only one flight was the aircraft not refuelled, and then because an exceptional tail-wind on a west-east crossing allowed the direct flight to Shannon. Normally, the boats were only refuelled once in this direction. World War 2, of course, interrupted these activities, and FlightRefuelling, Ltd., anticipated the destruction of their base at Ford by moving to Malvern, where they carried out a wide varietyof research for the Ministry of Aircraft Production. This included the development of thermal de-icing and of methods of towingfighters as a means of getting them to Malta. When the United States entered the war in 1941, theU.S.A.A.F. issued a requirement for a long-range bombing mission, and Flight Refuelling were called in to facilitate itsachievement. Mr. P. R. Allison, now the company's service manager, was sent across to work on a B-17 and a B-24. Hedecided to use the latter as the tanker, and a loop hose installa-
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
