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Flight Refuelling and the Problem of Range*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

C. H. Latimer-Needham
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Extract

The main function of refuelling in flight is to increase the range, or increase the payload over long stage lengths.

The quest for range has brought about a steady increase in aircraft size throughout the years and it has now become apparent that a new barrier, the range barrier, is an even more formidable barrier for designers to overcome than that caused by increasing resistance with increasing speed, especially at the speed of sound.

Figure 1 shows the weight of record-holding aircraft plotted against distance, from the first flight, of 284 yards, by Orville Wright in 1903. By 1909 Bleriot heroically struggled across the English Channel, a distance of 22 miles, and this was followed in later years by the Atlantic conquest by Alcock and Brown in 1919, Lindbergh's solo Atlantic crossing of 1927, and so on to the more recent record achievements of the B29 “Pacusan Dreamboat” and the P2V-1 Neptune “Truculent Turtle.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 54 , Issue 475 , July 1950 , pp. 433 - 463
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1950

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Footnotes

*

A Section Lecture (the 799th Lecture to be read before the Society) given on 25th April 1950.

References

Note on page 434 * It has been assumed that payload versus range is a straight line, i.e. fuel consumption a mile remains constant throughout the operational range. This is not strictly correct but is a simplifying assumption that does not materially affect the result at this stage. A mathematical treatment of this aspect is given in the Appendix.

Note on page 436 * Fourth British Commonwealth and Empire Lecture: Some Economic Factors in Civil Aviation by Peter Masefield, M.A., F.R.Ae.S., MJ.Ae.S. JOURNAL R.Ae.S., October 1948.

Note on page 441 * 31st Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture: Post-War Transport Aircraft, E. P. Warner, Hon.F.R.Ae.S., JOURNAL R.Ae.S., July 1943.

Note on page 444 * Standard Method for the Estimation of Direct Operating Costs of Aircraft, S.B.A.C., September 1949.

Note on page 445 * This is dealt with in a later Section.

Note on page 454 * The solutions for all cases are given in Flight Refuelling Report No. FR/CE/139.

Note on page 460 * The results are but little affected if the true fuel consumption be used.