Flight refueling

The company Flight Refueling Ltd in 1934 by the British Alan Cobham founded. The company's task was to develop a system that would enable aircraft to be refueled in flight .

development

Initially, Flight Refueling took over the system developed by the British pilot Richard Atcherley , in which a weighted cable from the tanker was taken up with a catch hook. For the first practical application, Cobham pulled two Handley Page W.10 machines from an air show and had them converted into tankers. The prototype of the Airspeed AS 5 Courier with the G-ABXN approval was intended as the recipient aircraft. The plane took off for India on September 24, 1934 and was refueled over the Isle of Wight . The attempt ended with a belly landing in Malta due to damage to the throttle valve.

After this failed attempt, Cobham continued working at the Ford airfield in Sussex. He was supported by the UK Department of Aviation , which made various types of aircraft available. These were the types Vickers Virginia , Armstrong Whitworth AW23 , Handley Page HP51 , Boulton Paul Overstrand and Vickers B.9 / 27.

For the crossing of the North Atlantic with Short C class flying boats, work began in 1937. The tests were carried out with the AW 23 and the Cambria flying boat. Flight Refueling concluded a contract with Imperial Airways for the refueling of Cabot and Caribou aircraft on the North Atlantic route. The AW 23 were replaced by three Harrow machines. They received the G-AFRG, G-AFRH and G-AFRL approvals. Two machines were stationed in Botwood / Newfoundland and the third in Shannon / Ireland. The test flights began in April 1939. On August 5, 1939, the regular mail service was taken from Southampton . Until the outbreak of the Second World War another sixteen Atlantic crossings were carried out. Flight Refueling had prevailed against Mayo Composite, which was supposed to cover long distances with a piggyback system.

In 1944, Flight Refueling Ltd. Commissioned by the British Air Force to develop an aerial refueling system for the Tiger Force, which was to carry out bombing raids on Japan. Although the staff in the development department was quadrupled, construction lasted until August 1945. This was too late for the war effort.

The concept called for the tanker to drag a hose with a wind sock behind it. The windsock acted as a conical filler neck that had to be hit by a rigid probe on the receiving aircraft. When the connection was established, the valves on both sides were opened automatically and closed again automatically when the connection was made.

After the Second World War, Flight Refueling helped Boeing develop an air refueling method for the bombers of the Strategic Air Command .