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AAR (Air to Air Refueling) isn't really necessary for the civilian market, but is extremely important for the military. Most people don't realize, but the rang
by Top19 9y ago
AAR (Air to Air Refueling) isn't really necessary for the civilian market, but is extremely important for the military.
Most people don't realize, but the range of a fighter jet is very small. The F-15 gets about 1500 miles of range (or 750 miles of radius). A 747 gets nearly 8,000 miles of range, so FIVE TIMES more range.
Also do you ever wonder how we get jets to Afghanistan? We literally fly them the entire way. After September 11th the Air Force had to set up something known as a "Sky Bridge". It's a network of Boeing Aerial Refueling planes that F-15s would visit, one after the other, to airbases in Europe, Turkey, Kuwait, etc. So F-15s were refueling 4 or so times on a single flight.
Other fun facts:
- Helicopters can do aerial refueling as well
- If you lower the amount of fuel in a jet, it can take off with shorter runway. This can be important in hastily set-up or even damaged airports, and the jets can then refuel aerially later
- davedx 9y agoHow on earth do the pilots stay awake for so long, and be alert and focused enough to do their mission, and then fly back again?
- rwmj 9y agoYou have two pilots, but also drugs (speed in particular): http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123778 http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123778
- zifnab06 9y agoDoes abc not proof read their articles? Missing punctuation, sentences that just stop...I'm actually surprised that article made it online in its current state.
- rwmj 9y agoI'm going to guess that because the article is rather old (from 2000 as far as I could tell) it has been copied from CMS to CMS to CMS over the years and some loss of fidelity has occurred. Anyway this stackexchange question may be a better source: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/8885/do-military-pilots-use-amphetamines-or-other-stimulants https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/8885/do-militar...
- zifnab06 9y agoThat would make sense. I missed the year. Perfectly valid source, I was just amused by it's quality.