Plans for Atlantic Flying

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 109, 11 May 1939, Page 8

Plans for Atlantic Flying

REFUELLING IN THE AIR LONDON, March 30. The erew3 of Imperial Airways flyingboats which will take part in tire Atlantic mail services to be operated this summer will begin training before long in the process of refuelling in the air, says the aeronautical correspondent of the Times. The flying-boats, specially strengthened to carry heavy loads, are at present undergoing their airworthiness tests. The last touches are being put to the three Harrow bombers which have been transformed to serve as tankers.

The technique of refuelling in the air has been in development from the base of Flight Refuelling, Limited, here for more than two years, and the system has now been brought to the point at which contact can be made easily and quickly between the tanker and the refuelling aeroplane and 1000 gallons can be transferred in about 10 minutes. The process has been made partly automatic 'and most of the responsibility rests with the crew of the tanker. The receiving aircraft takes off first, and when it has gained height the operator in the tail pays out a line with a weight attached to it. This line passes through the centre of the fuelreceiving cup. This line, trailing below the air-liner, has to be engaged by the tanker. Change of Stations in the Air The tanker, flying below the liner, allows the contact line to come across the leading edge of its wing. The shape of the wing encourages the line to slide along toward the wing-tip, where there is a hook with which it engages. Tho pull causes the hook to come away. Attached to the hook is a second line passing to a winch in the tanker. As soon as the hook has pulled out, an operator in the tanker hauls in the weighted line by means of his winch. In the meanwhile, the tanker has risen above the air-liner and has stationed itself to the rear and slightly to the side and about 60ft. above it. The weight having been drawn in through an opening below the nose of the tanker, the operator detaches the weight and connects the nozzle of the hose-pipe to the line by means of a bayonet fitting. The hose-pipe is carried on a drum and is connected at the opposite end through the centre of the drum to the main fuel tanks. The drum in turn is controlled by another winch, and as soon as the nozzle is connected to the line of the liner the hose is paid out by means of this winch and a brake controlling it. In the liner at the same tim-e another winch begins to haul in the line. Control Not Seriously Affected When the nozzl-e arrives it fits automatically into the socket prepared for it and this junction is sc designed that it cannot jamb and that it will pull away at a pre-determined load. The tanker when ready to begin passing fuel has its nose immediately above the liner’s tail. In that position the hose is carried backwards in a loop by the pressure of the air, but U enters the rear of the liner in a horizontal position. The only influence it can exert on the liner in that position is therefore that of a drag. It cannot seriously affect the control of the liner, and it is said that, from the feel of his controls, the liner pilot is often not aware that the hose has been linked up. The effect on the control of the tanker likewise cannot be serious be-

cause the drum is set roughly at the tanker 's centre of gravity. In* order to allow a distance of 70ft. or 80ft. between the two aircraft some 180 ft. of hose is paid out. The drag of the hose tends naturally to reduce the speed of the tanker, but in all the experiments made there has been an ample margin over the stalling speed of the liners which have to be refuelled. In the present case the speed at which refuelling will take place is between 120 and 130 miles an hour.