RAF A330MRTT Voyager tankers

[JohnR]

Just out of curiosity how many MRTT are painted white and how many grey.

 

[RavenOne]

VIP Voyager touches down with Union Flag livery

A UK Royal Air Force-operated Airbus Defence & Space A330 Voyager touched down at its Brize Norton home in Oxfordshire on 25 June sporting a new Union Flag livery to denote its tasking as a VIP transport asset.

www.flightglobal.com

EDIT: Drats, just realised article is paywalled.

i live in Cambridge anyhow not far from Marshals Cambridge Airport ( EGSC) and over the last 3 decades seen many interesting things including night test of Orbital Sciences Stargazer L-1011 as folks live under the flight path from EGSC. Marshall’s converted a Tristar to carry Pegasus in 1992/93 timeframe. when Clinton came to Uk here in 94 for D-Day celebrations he came to see the American Military Cemetery at Madingley just on The outskirts. The skies above folks house was Germany based Sikorsky UH-60A carrying Secret Service folk, and thought I saw VH-70N Whitehawks as well over the garden. Also you would have seen my thread and photos of Blue Angels new Fat Albert on its test flights from here EGSC as Marshall’s converted old RAF C-130J.

Anyhow here’s my photos of Boris Voyager coming into land (I missed it taking off after it’s paint job as was out of town),

 

[CJGibson]

I think these US types retain the boom receptacle. Poseidons do (see attached) and the Sentries do, hence the very offset probe. The C-17s were procured under an agreement that initially didn't cover IFR and the Rivet Joints are probably refuelled on a boom (shhhhhh).

This got me wondering why the Poseidon, designed as a US Navy aircraft has a boom receptacle? Must be the only US Navy aircraft with one.

Also, the other day I noticed on ADS-B that an AirSeeker flew a racetrack off Lincolnshire before heading for the Baltic. No tanker was showing, but that's not unusual.

Chris

 

[kitnut617]

As I wrote above, I've seen the whole fleet at one time or another, sometimes four would rotate over a couple of weeks bringing and returning troops from Suffield. I never saw an all white one though, even the half painted one (the first of the fleet) was grey although it had no markings other than the registration. Have they gone through a repaint cycle ---

 

[JohnR]

This got me wondering why the Poseidon, designed as a US Navy aircraft has a boom receptacle? Must be the only US Navy aircraft with it.


Chris

The Orion doesn't have a probe; at least not an obvious one, and from the photo's I could find doesn't appear to have a book receptacle.

 

[TomS]

This got me wondering why the Poseidon, designed as a US Navy aircraft has a boom receptacle? Must be the only US Navy aircraft with it.


Chris

The Orion doesn't have a probe; at least not an obvious one, and from the photo's I could find doesn't appear to have a book receptacle.

Orion didn't have in-flight refuelling, because it had very long unrefuelled endurance and it often didn't fly places where there were tankers available. P-8 adds the IFR receptacle though I doubt they will use it all the time. Changes to CONOPS do make it more likely that they will be flying in places where tanker support is an option, though. No point in including a probe, because there is so much on board fuel (up to 34 tons) that I can't think of a hose-and-drogue tanker a/c with enough "give" to be worth the effort (except maybe the Omega commercial tankers).

I can think of one other USN aircraft with the boom receptacle -- the E-6 TACAMO aircraft. Same basic reason as the boom receptacle on the P-8. They need much more fuel than tactical aircraft and no Navy aircraft with a hose reel could pass enough to be really useful.

 

[CJGibson]

TomS - I can't think of a hose-and-drogue tanker a/c with enough "give" to be worth the effort (except maybe the Omega commercial tankers).

Voyager, Extender, Pegasus

Chris

 

[TomS]

TomS - I can't think of a hose-and-drogue tanker a/c with enough "give" to be worth the effort (except maybe the Omega commercial tankers).

Voyager, Extender, Pegasus

Chris

Oops. Yeah, I was thinking in the USN fleet but I should have said that.

 

[TomcatViP]

And they have done it.
(I am however sceptical about it being the tanker with most fuel when compared to the KC-10...)

View: https://youtu.be/FQMscNisUVM


Seems to be entirely via image processing. I am curious that they haven't used radar for measuring slant distance with absolute precision.

 

[TomS]

(I am however sceptical about it being the tanker with most fuel when compared to the KC-10...

"In its segment" is a handy loophole. But it could be true. The MRTT can carry 111 tons of fuel (total), while the KC-10 can carry just over 160 tons. But the KC-10 also has three engines versus two for MRTT, so it needs more fuel for itself. You'd need to do some serious number crunching to see how much fuel each plane can actually give at any given range from base.

 

[JohnR]

What was the fuel capacity of the Victor, VC10, Super VC10 and Tristar?

 

[TomcatViP]

Not RAF but still related (France would have to order more Tanker) :

France allegedly offered 6 used MRTT to India:

France in its deal has offered to sell six Airbus 330 jets which are around five to seven years old. These jets will come with a 30 year platform life guarantee. The quotation by the French is reportedly much cheaper than other offers present before the government.

Expanding IAF's Strike Capabilities: India Weighs Offer To Buy Six Airbus 330 Mid-Air Refuellers From France

[object Object]

swarajyamag.com

As a side note, the great aircraft bazaar is furloughing two ex FrAF A340 at a jaw dropping starting price of 80k€ (~60-80k flight hours).

 

[TomcatViP]

Not RAF but RAAF:

https://www.defence.gov.au/news-events/news/2024-01-08/expanding-air-air-refuelling-support