# How to refuel a plane in the air.: **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2017, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-refuel-a-plane-in-the-air/778000 "2017-01-24T02:18:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-refuel-a-plane-in-the-air/778000/41 "2017-04-20T20:45:49Z")
I am amazed how they can refuel helicopters. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-refuel-a-plane-in-the-air/778000/42 "2017-04-25T23:49:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > IIRC, during the Falklands War, Britain couldn’t get overflight rights nor use of airstrips in any other European country, and so needed a complicated pyramid of tankers refueling tankers in order to get their fighters to the island. It was something crazy like 19 tanker planes for each fighter mission. Google image search “Operation Black Buck infographic”. The had a fleet of tankers to refuel a smaller fleet of tankers, to refuel a single tanker that refueled one bomber to fuck up the runway as the Argentinian airbase. > [@MikeF](#): > > So, how much of the volume of a tanker is taken up by fuel? I haven’t been able to locate any interior shots of a takers cargo area (although I didn’t try very hard to do so). Not much, fuel is pretty heavy at ~7 pounds/gallon, it’s mostly hidden belowdecks where the civilian version would put the passengers’ luggage. > [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > [slight hijack] > (Hey, who knew that there would be an article about military refueling tankers so close to this article about one of China’s new attack aircraft?) > > Lets assume that there are no carriers (left?) in the region and we are sending in aircraft that need to be refueled. What would protect the tankers attempting to refuel military aircraft from China’s new J-20 ‘Refueling Tanker Killer’? > > [The Real Purpose Behind China's Mysterious J-20 Combat Jet - Business Insider](http://www.businessinsider.com/the-real-purpose-behind-chinas-mysterious-j-20-combat-jet-2017-1?r=UK&IR=T) > > [/slight hijack] Either F-18s or F-15s, the former of which have a well-protected mobile airport to go back to. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Of course I knew ‘T’, but I was going to guess that the ‘K’ came from ‘tanKer’. Well, jet fuel is just fancy Kerosene… > [@JHBoom](#): > > when someone watching B-2 departures while sitting in their car in Knob Noster, MO doesn’t know whether the B-2 that just took off is an “out and back” trainer, or has 20k lbs. of ordnance onboard and is headed out to make someone’s day really, really bad… They fly B-52s from Barksdale (NW Louisiana) to the middle east and back whenever there’s a dust-up, iirc they broke the Black Buck record more than once in '91 and/or '03. Because the ones at Diego Garcia are needed for nuclear deterrent. [QUOTE=Urbanredneck;20151420"] I am amazed how they can refuel helicopters. [/QUOTE] [Sometimes.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdpKpppZiA) ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-refuel-a-plane-in-the-air/778000/43 "2017-04-26T08:24:30Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > I just counted 18 tankers but didn’t look to see if that’s global or just over the US. I would be interested to learn any stats about refueling like how many refueling airplanes have we had in the air at one time, or the longest amount of time we’ve had a major refueling program and how many planes were involved. ---
**Author:** ![JHBoom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/13edae/32.png) [@JHBoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JHBoom)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-refuel-a-plane-in-the-air/778000/44 "2017-04-27T16:38:51Z")
The opening night of Operation Desert Storm was the largest number of tankers airborne at once. [Over 300 US tankers were in-theater](http://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/119259/largest-air-refueling-operation-in-history-highlighted-during-tanker-living-leg/) at several bases in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Egypt, and Turkey. The longest time is now - the US has had a continuous, significant tanker presence in the ME since Desert Shield/Desert Storm, supporting [Northern Watch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northern_Watch), [Southern Watch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Southern_Watch), OEF/OIF, and other operations. That presence has grown and shrunk over the decades as tensions in the region rise and fall, but it’s been continuous since 1990. Sorry, not providing numbers or locations on a current operation. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-refuel-a-plane-in-the-air/778000/45 "2017-05-02T14:05:41Z")
> [@JHBoom](#): > > Sorry, not providing numbers or locations on a current operation. The unclassified ballpark figure (sort of like how anything you read about fighter jets or warships just says “faster than [high number, but actually a good bit lower than the classified reality]” for top speed) is “many” and “a bit back from wherever somebody’s day is about to get/just got ruined.” 😛 Jets can run for hundreds of hours between teardowns so it’s not that much more maintenance, the USAF has a basically unlimited fuel budget for forward-based tankers, there’s two pilots who can trade off flying and napping, and for the rest of the BUFF crew it’s no less (well, maybe slightly less) comfortable than a cattle-car-class commercial flight, so why NOT fly from Barksdale or Minot to the Middle East and back? The aforementioned OPSEC reasons, and also you need some way to get the crews some flying time (for 23 hours it’s just a routine training mission, aside from the time over target), and might as well break some records and wave America’s big ol’ military dick in everybody’s faces while we’re at it. As a bonus, I wouldn’t be surprised if the crews preferred the 24 on/whatever off schedule and sleeping in their own bed with their SO after every mission to being deployed halfway around the world. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-refuel-a-plane-in-the-air/778000/46 "2017-05-02T14:41:13Z")
> [@Gunslinger](#): > > Not much, fuel is pretty heavy at ~7 pounds/gallon, it’s mostly hidden belowdecks where the civilian version would put the passengers’ luggage. When I was on Okinawa, Kadena AFB had a day where they were showing off various aircraft including a KC-135. My buddy was astonished at all that empty space they were actually letting us walk through. I just told him it would not be able to get off of the ground if the interior was solid fuel. Another aircraft on display was the SR-71 and it was of extreme interest, as up until then you’d get your film confiscated if you were caught taking a picture. Unlike the other aircraft you could actually walk up to – or even through in the case of the Cs and KCs – the cones were set out at about 20 feet. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-refuel-a-plane-in-the-air/778000/47 "2017-05-02T15:16:32Z")
> [@Gunslinger](#): > > Google image search “Operation Black Buck infographic”. The had a fleet of tankers to refuel a smaller fleet of tankers, to refuel a single tanker that refueled one bomber to fuck up the runway as the Argentinian airbase. > … The Operation Black Buck infographic is one of many virtuoso pieces by Paul Button, and can be browsed at different scales [here](http://sectiondesign.co.uk/operation-black-buck). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-refuel-a-plane-in-the-air/778000.md?page=2)