China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft - esp. Y-20/YY-20
- Thread starter Totoro
- Start date
I wonder if the centerline drogue is more a matter of "much must be risked in times of war" since I've never actually seen 3 fighters simultaneously refueling during photo ops. Seems like it would put 3 fighters perilously close to each other....
lcloo
Captain
lcloo
Captain
Of course not, but still they have to cater for J10C, J35A etc. For larger aircraft they would use 2 refueling points, or more likely they will use the central refueling point to minimise effect of air turbulence from the wing tips.
They don't just refuel large aircraft.
I mean, for large transfers of fuel, it's optimal to use central station, to avoid shifts of center of gravity, simplify maneuvering, etc.
For smaller aircraft, two wing stations can be used.
3 is more of acrobatics/show off/emergency.
If this distance is acceptably safe then why haven't we seen exactly this setup in a photo op? I don't mean 3 fighters flying behind a YY-20, I mean 3 fighters actually refueling at the same time.
I don't think there is any expectation that the aircraft is intended to refuel three fighter/tactical aircraft simultaneously.
The most that would be simultaneously refueled at once is two fighter/tactical aircraft, from the two outboard stations.
The centreline drogue exists because it should allow for a slightly faster fuel transfer rate to larger aircraft like KJ-500A, H-6N, by virtue of having a mounting inside the airframe with more potent pumps than the outboard refueling pods.
The centreline drogue may also be able to refuel tactical fighter aircraft.
Naturally, if the centreline drogue was in use by any aircraft at all (whether it's a larger aircraft like KJ-500A or H-6N, or whether it's a tactical fighter), then the two outboard wing drogues would not be operable.
AFAIK that is the case for all refuelling aircraft with three drogue points, like the Il-78 or the UK A330 MRTT (which doesn't have a fuselage boom and replaces it with a drogue) or other A330 MRTTs (some of which from memory have both a fuselage boom and a drogue). None of those aircraft are intended to refuel aircraft from the outboard wing stations and the central fuselage station simultaneously. (I think back when air refuelling was in its infancy there may have been instances of triple simultaneous refuelling, but it's far from usual practice these days)
It's either "outboard wing station/s" or "central fuselage station," not both.
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Edit: something like this is very, very rare, for example, and is not the standard use for why the central drogu exists
