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IN APRIL 1987 a VC-10 transport aircraft of the Royal Air Force
departed its base at Brize Norton in England, with Sir Michael
Cobham as a passenger. Less than 16 hours later, it landed in
Perth, Australia. In doing so the VC-10 broke the previous record
for the route, set by three Avro Vulcan bombers in 1963 with a time
of just over 18 hours. Both achieved their records with the help of
Cobham's probe and drogue air-to-air refuelling equipment. Flights
such as these served as a reminder of the strategic abilities of
air-to-air refuelling, enabling projection of power across vast
distances as demonstrated in the Falklands War in 1982.
Just three years after the record breaking VC-10 flight to
Australia, the world gained an insight in to the tactical use of
in-flight refuelling after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990,
precipitating the Gulf War. There 300 Coalition forces tankers flew
more than 20,000 sorties and offloaded more than 170 million
gallons of fuel during Operation Desert Storm, in expelling the
forces of Iraq from Kuwait.
Fighter and bomber aircraft took off fully armed, but with
part-full fuel tanks to avoid exceeding the aircraft's structural
maximum takeoff weight, knowing that they could top off their tanks
from a waiting tanker before crossing the border into the hostile
zone. This gave them free reign to execute their missions, evade
defences and return to Saudi Arabia, often for another tanker hook
up to ensure adequate fuel reserves for the return to base.
In 1994 Cobham acquired Sargent Fletcher in the US, which was of
particular interest, as Sargent Fletcher was one of the American
companies which had ultimately benefited from Sir Alan's necessary
sale of the American rights to his refuelling technology in the
early 1950s. The US Government had granted the rights to the
equipment to Douglas and Sargent Fletcher, both of whom immediately
set about supplying the US Navy, which embraced the concept of
air-to-air refuelling for its aircraft-carrier based fighters and
bombers with alacrity.
Development of air-to-air refuelling systems has been a
continuous process. As in every technology, advances in
electronics, structural materials and computer control have bred
simpler, lighter equipment with ever increasing reliability.
Development of the '90X' pod, Cobham's 'fourth generation' system,
illustrates the point.
Selected for the Airbus A400M transport aircraft, the new pod
must be able to use the A400M's variable AC power. In addition,
Airbus's decision to produce the A400M to civil rather than
military certification standards meant Cobham had to produce the
refuelling equipment to the same standard, with its attendant
system redundancy and safety systems.
Having proven itself in flight tests, the 90X pod will also be
fitted to the 14 Airbus A330 aircraft acquired for the UK Future
Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) program, due to enter service in
2011.
Cobham is a consortium member for FSTA, which will replace the
26 VC-10 and Tristar tankers currently in service.
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The Falklands War in 1982 highlighted the RAF's
need for strategic airlift capability, which led to the purchase of
nine ex-airline Lockheed L1011 Tristars for conversion to
tanker-transports. Two Cobham hose drum systems were installed in
each aircraft with the first entering service in March 1986.
Helicopters too have benefited from air-to-air
refuelling, both to increase endurance and to allow lifting of
greater payloads.
Cobham has provided more than 100 refuelling
probes for the Boeing V-22 Osprey.
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