Witnessing in-flight refueling operation
PLA Daily 2005-09-14
Preparing to refuel
Maneuvering into position
Hooking-upOne day in late August, the reporter boarded a tanker aircraft of an air force aviation division in order to witness the whole refueling process for an aviation assault air fleet involved in an exercise.
At 11:00 on that day, the air force division equipped with tanker aircraft received an order to provide aerial refueling service to an aviation assault air fleet involved in an exercise.
The division promptly activated the emergency plan. Very soon the combat take-off preparations were completed, and the tanker soared into the sky and headed for the designated aerial refueling space according to the stipulated time.
The tanker flew through clouds and timely gathered together at the designated safe refueling space. Nearly at the same time, a new type of jet fighters fleet of an air force aviation division arrived at the same airspace after accomplishing a long-range air raid mission.
As soon as the tanker and receiver aircraft arrived at the same refueling airspace, they started to hook up after adjusting their relative position. The distance between the tanker and receiver aircraft became smaller and smaller, finally the distance between the fuselage of tanker and that of the receiver aircraft was a little more than ten meters. At that moment, the impact of the wake turbulence created by the tanker towards the receiver aircraft suddenly became very great.
"Releasing the flexible hose!" The refueling operator in the boom compartment issued the order. The aerial refueling hose was released from the tanker.
At that critical moment, the jet fighter pilots must not only aim its probe precisely at the refueling hose, but also control his bumpy aircraft in order to modify the deviation caused by the wake turbulence.
Under such circumstance, the speed of the receiver aircraft should be neither too fast nor too low. If it were too slow, it would not be able to mate up with the tanker for a long time, resulting in fuel exhaustion of the receiver aircraft. If its speed was too fast, then the relative speed between the tanker and receiver aircraft would be too great, which would damage the drogue and probe or lead to even serious flight accident such as collision between tanker and receiver aircraft in the air.
Closer! Closer! With a clear "click" sound, the left and right red lights on the front cabin instrument panel of the tanker were on nearly at the same time. The tanker and receiver aircraft had successfully mated up!
After hook-up, the extra air resistance for the tanker and receiver aircraft abruptly increased. Meanwhile the pilots of receiver aircraft continued to open the throttle and maintain their aircraft in a straight and level attitude at constant speed.
"Starting refueling!" the refueling operator snapped out the order. Instantly, the refueling green lights in front cabin flashed simultaneously. Meanwhile the tanker and receiver aircraft continued to fly at the same constant speed, and the fuel was rapidly pumped from the tanker to the receiving aircraft through the refueling hoses. After dozens of seconds, the receiver aircraft were refueled with several tons of fuel.
"Retracting the flexible hose!" upon the order, the tanker quickly retracted the refueling hose. Afterwards, the receiver aircraft, which were the new type of jet fighters, swiftly disengaged.
Thanks to the skillful operation of pilots and related operators, coordination between the tanker and receiver aircraft was perfect. After calculation, the reporter found that the whole refueling process, from the tanker and receiver aircraft maneuvering into position, hooking up, refueling, to final disengagement, took only several minutes.
By Tan Jie and Yan Guoyou
