Aircraft refueling

In the 1980s, the U.S. Department ofDefense (DOD) selected jet-propulsion fuel 8 (JP-8) as its primary fuel. JP-8 is widely used by the military not only for aircraft, but also for ground vehicles and other equipment, such as generators, cooking stoves, and tent heaters. Military personnel can be exposed to JP-8 vapors and aerosols during a number of operational scenarios, including aircraft refueling and maintenance. To protect the health ofits personnel, DOD recommended an interim permissible exposure level (PEL) of 350 mg/m3. 

Recovery and reliquefaction of all (boiled off) gaseous H2 was considered simple and cost effective. LH2 distribution to aircraft refueling devices is done via a vacuum-jacketed pipeline system. In order to meet redundancy requirements, a three-line system was selected in which normally one is filled with liquid and the other two are used for vent hydrogen where one vent line could be switched to LH2 supply. The LH2 supply line with 0.4 m diameter allows a flow rate of 227 t/h at 0.3 MPa pressure. The refueling flow rate is < 14.3 t/h to keep the airplane fuel pipe inner diameter below 0.18 m. 

Suddenly catapulted into a conflict necessitating the movement of large numbers of troops some 7,000 miles away against a much more conveniently disposed adversary, a major policy rethink was thrust upon defence chiefs, for the islands were already occu )ied and no other friendly base was available in the area for the conveyance of troops by air. Even if one had been, the distance involved was beyond the range of the most powerful transport planes. The availability of Ascension Island as a refuelling point was of no help, for the aircraft would still have had insufficient fuel for the return flight, besides which a piecemeal, unsupported airborne invasion could have proved disastrous. There... 

For reasons of safety and availability as well as for environmental reasons, Brewer dismissed liquid methane as an inferior choice. He argued that, since civil commercial aviation is a truly international business, with airplanes refueling in New York, Rome, Tokyo, Jeddah, Warsaw, and Karachi, a future synthetic aviation fuel must be equally international— locally producible, with uniform characteristics everywhere. This is no problem as long as petroleum is cheap, and at the time kerosene and other hydrocarbon fuels were available at low cost all over the world. But aircraft makers, who have to think decades ahead when planning the useful life of airplanes, must face the fact that, beginning sometime in the period 2010-2020, petroleum may cease to be cheap. Brewer contended that it was going to be necessary to develop a new generation of synthetic aviation fuels that would be available everywhere around the world. 

The world s first large nuclear powered naval vessel was the US aircraft carrier Enterprise, which has 8 PWR reactors, producing 300 000 shp. With a displacement of 80 000 t (and 100 airplanes) it can cruise at 35 knots for 60 days without refueling. 

It includes two potential modes of transportation for off-site shipments of CWM (1) military aircraft and (2) truck. Choice of mode is based on distance to be transported and the quantity of CWM. Military aircraft is preferred, including both helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft. Helicopters are used if the distance is within the range of the helicopter without refueling or to move the CWM from the location where it is found to a military airfield for shipment by fixed-wing aircraft. 

A United States military aircraft carrying four nuclear bombs collided with a tanker aircraft during refueling in Palomares, Spain, in January, 1966. The bombs broke free of the airplane and the high explosive in two of the weapons detonated when the bombs hit the ground. Initial surveys showed that 0.00003 Ci plutonium/m (1.2x10 Bq/m, in the form of a finely powdered dioxide, were spread over 2 hectares (20,000 m (Harley 1980). 

Coordinate air refueling (for the fighter aircraft and the AWACS itself)... 

The AWACS typically takes off from Incirlik AFB approximately two hours before the first air refueling and fighter aircraft. Once the AWACS is airborne, the systems of the AWACS are brought on line, and a Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS ) link is established with a Turkish Sector Operations Center (radar site). After the JTTDS Unk is confirmed, the CFAC airborne command element (ACE) initiates the planned launch sequence for the rest of the force. Normally, within a one-hour period, tanker and fighter aircraft take off and proceed to the TAOR in a carefully orchestrated flow. Fighters may not cross the political border into Iraq without AWACS coverage. 

Scaled Composites designed and fabricated the record breaking Voyager aircraft that flew around the world non-stop and non-refueled with a crew of two. To achieve these aims in a time of nine days, the structural weight had to be as low as possible, and the structure as well as the spars, were graphite tape skins on a Nomex honeycomb core. 

On September 2, 2006, RAF Nimrod MR2 XV230 caught fire in mid-air over Afghanistan shortly after completing an air-to-air refueling operation. The crew had time to declare Mayday and begin an emergency descent, but the aircraft exploded at 3000 feet altitude and all fourteen crew died. 

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