4 ms·

This is by far the most interesting part of the story: > Refuelling was handled by lowering a hook via a winch down to a fuel truck that would trail the plane

This is by far the most interesting part of the story: > Refuelling was handled by lowering a hook via a winch down to a fuel truck that would trail the plane on a straight stretch of road, usually twice a day. The winch would then pull up a fuel hose from the truck, which would be used to fill the belly tank in around three minutes. The same system was used to regularly pull up food, oil and other supplies like towels and water for shaving and bathing. Midair refueling is the realm of air forces and these guys did it with a hook on a winch.

rlpb 4y ago
The point of Air Force midair refueling is for when there isn't a convenient long, straight road that they can get a tanker to. Otherwise they would just land :-) (also jet engines are really inefficient at low altitudes and it takes a lot of fuel to climb, so the other point is so that fighters don't expend the fuel getting back to altitude again)
mandevil 4y ago
Two decades earlier, a previous record holder, the Curtis Robin Ole Miss, stayed in the air for 27 days using real aerial refueling: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/curtiss-robin-j-1-deluxe/nasm_A19560041000 https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/curtiss-robin-... Fred and Al Key, brothers who owned an airfield together, flew the record plane, two other men (James Keeton and William Ward) flew the refueling plane. In order to make the refueling safe, the Keys had designed a breakaway spill valve to prevent a disconnection from spilling fuel, the forerunner to the modern aerial refueling system. The trickiest thing to me about what the Keys did was oil changes, which they needed to do every three days. They rigged up a metal catwalk around their engine, so that Fred could walk out and change the oil from the outside while the plane was still flying (they had two oil systems, each of which could lubricate the entire plane, so every three days they turned off the oil system on one side, Fred climbed out, drained the oil out on the ground- it's the 1930's, no one needs environmental impact statements!) closed the valve and refilled the oil tank, then they turned on that side and turned off the other side and did it again a few hours later when that oil had cooled. Both Fred and Al joined the USAAF during World War Two and flew bomber missions over Germany. Al stayed in the Air Force after the war and ended up as a Colonel.
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  I've actually thought about this and if I had Elon Musk money I'd use it to try and break this record instead of doing whatever he's doing now. Mostly so I could make a comment about how weird it feels to walk on the ground after living in a airplane for so long. It would be far more luxurious than this.

rlpb 4y ago

The point of Air Force midair refueling is for when there isn't a convenient long, straight road that they can get a tanker to. Otherwise they would just land :-) (also jet engines are really inefficient at low altitudes and it takes a lot of fuel to climb, so the other point is so that fighters don't expend the fuel getting back to altitude again)

mandevil 4y ago

Two decades earlier, a previous record holder, the Curtis Robin Ole Miss, stayed in the air for 27 days using real aerial refueling: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/curtiss-robin-j-1-deluxe/nasm_A19560041000 https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/curtiss-robin-... Fred and Al Key, brothers who owned an airfield together, flew the record plane, two other men (James Keeton and William Ward) flew the refueling plane. In order to make the refueling safe, the Keys had designed a breakaway spill valve to prevent a disconnection from spilling fuel, the forerunner to the modern aerial refueling system. The trickiest thing to me about what the Keys did was oil changes, which they needed to do every three days. They rigged up a metal catwalk around their engine, so that Fred could walk out and change the oil from the outside while the plane was still flying (they had two oil systems, each of which could lubricate the entire plane, so every three days they turned off the oil system on one side, Fred climbed out, drained the oil out on the ground- it's the 1930's, no one needs environmental impact statements!) closed the valve and refilled the oil tank, then they turned on that side and turned off the other side and did it again a few hours later when that oil had cooled. Both Fred and Al joined the USAAF during World War Two and flew bomber missions over Germany. Al stayed in the Air Force after the war and ended up as a Colonel.

hotpotamus 4y ago
I've actually thought about this and if I had Elon Musk money I'd use it to try and break this record instead of doing whatever he's doing now. Mostly so I could make a comment about how weird it feels to walk on the ground after living in a airplane for so long. It would be far more luxurious than this.