Tow Boom

[Rino]

Originally posted by cav58d
Was watching the MILITARY channel last night...There was an episode on about the Airlift Mobility Command, and near the end of the show I heard the Narrator comment that KC-135 would often tow damaged fighters with their boom into gliding distance to a friendly field!  can anyone go into more detail about this or point me to some articles?  How about pics?

thanks

cav

     I remember reading about a 135 towing an F-4E back to Newfoundland
after it's engines started losing power.  Apparently the aircraft "broke lock"
a couple times but the boomer was able to rejam the boom back into the
receptacle.  This should be around 1982-3, and I believe the aircraft
involved was from Seymour Johnson AFB.  It was attempting to deploy to
Europe.

      Anyway, happy ending and medals all around for the refueler crew

P.S.  The Phantom's refueling receptacle is better placed for this kind of
      thing than alot of other aircraft as it sits behind the rear cockpit on
      the fuselage.

[cav58d]

Id love to see a pic of Steve Fergusons Painting...Did a google search to no avail though -(

[Tarmac]

l33t Googal skillz!

[Toad]

I think it happened more than once.

The toggles on the receptacle are held in place with 3000 psi hydraulic pressure. There are three "male" toggles on the boom that lock into female receptacles on the fighter and three male toggles on the fighter that lock into three female receptacles on the boom. Idea being if one system is working out of the two, fighter or tanker, it will be enough to transfer fuel.

Still, if you "pull" hard enough it should disconnect. There are examples of boom nozzles being pulled out of the boom and remaining attached to the fighter though. (Usually a problem with nozzle attachment)

I do seem to remember a story about an F-105 being "towed" by a tanker. The F-105 flamed out/engine failure and they went into a slow descent, boom engaged. They towed him just about to his home base IIRC and the 105 driver then punched out in a "safe" area. This would be a combo glide/tow but a "Thud" didn't glide all that well, so there had to be a bunch of "tow" in it too.

It's been a long time though and I don't really remember the details.

[Rino]

Was just talking to Miguel Badillo, one of my employees who is also a
reservist KC-135 boomer operator.  He said as long as the towee has
some power, it can be done.  He said he's able to shift an F-16 around
quite easily with the boom.

[Goomba]

Wow...

I wouldn't have believed it, but looks like this stuff might be true.  I would not have thought a fuel boom strong enough.

Even with the recorded experiences, and the visuals, I still have a hard time intuiting how that F-4 thing could work, but clearly it did.  It still looks like that tailhook would just ride right up the windscreen, if not through it.

Oh, well...Truth is stranger than fiction!  Who'da thunk it?

[Gunslinger]

I was gonna say I would imagine as long as the fighter being towed dosn'te have COMPLETE power loss this wouldn't be entirly impossible.  I wouldn't think they'd be able to do this over vast dinstances but just enough to get to an air strip or be able to punch out over a safer area.

[Hangtime]

there's an immense amount of pilot skill involved.... and those tanker drivers are superb pilots.. delicate handling of massive aircraft with an intuitive skill at mentaly solving speed, time, distance and placement problems with just a few verbal cues and a spinchter to seat connection that defies credibility.

incredible flying.

[Toad]

Actually, the tanker's driver's main job is to provide a "stable platform".

He can climb, dive, turn, whatever as long as it is smooth and the rate is predictable or constant.

The tanker autopilot is almost always used unless inop.

Hanging on the boom is a bit tougher than being the tanker. Trust me on this one. Particularly when refueling during a thunderstorm or with the aurora borealis playing havoc with your tendency towards vertigo.