A Day in the life of a Boom Operator...Part 2- The PICS!!!

Thanks for the info gents.

Keep up the good work.

More pics in about 30 min after I upload them!

Here's some more...


Thunderbirds






boom nozzle up close:



some joke pics:









In formation:



KC-46 SIM



Hornets



low level



f-22



f-16







f-15



wicked paint job (F-14)












f-14






f-4



EA-6B



COBRA BALL



C-5






B-1 doing a barrel roll:






B-52 with the AGM-28















B-2



B-1


Cool flightline pic (Altus AFB)



A-10 at night




More to come...

With the help of the boom operators facebook page, I've collabrated a collection of about 50 or so patches from different ARS units over the years. Once I get them all together, I'll post them.

WOW just WOW that is freaking epic!
any more detail on the B2 spirit engines and i'm sure they would be classified
And the silver F117 most awesome.
Have ALL my stars pal. can i print them pics off? I have a pal over here in the UK who is EX BAE phantom works
(nuclear loader on the Avro vulcan and the Blackburn Buccaneer)he's old school but would love these.

reply to post by stealthyaroura


Sure. Knock yourself out!

reply to post by boomer135


GREAT bloody mint thread.Thankyou.
I know you will get asked this A LOT but any chance of a nice SR71? did they even take fuel on board in flight?
I would say not un less it's a classified prototype

Holy crap is that a hound dog nuclear missile strapped to that bomber

reply to post by stealthyaroura


The Blackbird refueled a lot in flight. It leaked like a sieve on the ground, and would take off light, and have to refuel almost immediately after take off. The flights that went out of the east coast, over Israel and Egypt during the war took 14 refuelings roundtrip.

reply to post by sarra1833


Ok, now that I'm on my laptop quick lesson in refueling.

There are two primary tanker aircraft used by the US military (the US Navy has the ability to put strap on refueling pods onto aircraft that can be used to refuel, but that's for later), the KC-135 and the KC-10.

There are two schools of thought on in flight refueling, the boom method, and the probe and drogue method. The US Air Force is one of the few that uses the boom method of refueling. This is the boom in the stowed position. The boom method of refueling has the advantage of being able to transfer a lot of fuel in a relatively short period of time. Aircraft such as the B-52, or C-5 can require over 150,000 pounds of fuel in a refueling (approximately 22,000 gallons of fuel). The boom allows for several thousand pounds of fuel per minute, as opposed to a slower transfer rate through the probe and drogue method.

Another view of the boom stowed. The first bump that sticks down, on the right edge of the picture is where the boom operator lays (he sits up in the KC-10 and lays down in the KC-135), and steers the boom to the receivers receptacle.

There are several different locations of receptacles on the receptacle on the receiver aircraft. On fighters, it's usually right near the canopy, and requires the boom to go very close to the pilots head. On heavy aircraft it can be in front of the windscreen, or it can be behind the cockpit area on top of the fuselage.

Probe and drogue refueling is similar, but instead of steering the boom to a receptacle, the boom is extended behind the tanker aircraft (in the case of the KC-135) or the drogue is extended (KC-10) and the pilot of the receiver (Navy, Marine, most NATO aircraft) steers a probe into the "basket" of the drogue. The RAF use this method for large aircraft, but the US only use it on fighters.

With the KC-135, there is a dr ogue assembly that attaches to the end of the boom, which means that only one method can be used at a time. Some KC-135s also have pods that attach to the wingtip that have drogues in them and allow for refueling two aircraft at once.

The KC-10 has a drogue that is permanently installed under the tail (the white to the right of the boom). This allows them to refuel with the boom, or the drogue on the same mission. Some KC-10s also have pods that can be attached to the wingtips like the KC-135 pods.

The US Navy also have what's called a "buddy pod", that can be attached to either the F/A-18 Hornet, or the EA-6B Prowler, and can transfer fuel from the plane carrying it, to the receiver. It's also the probe and drogue system, where it extends the basket behind the pod and aircraft, and the receiver plugs into it. These are used near the carrier, in case a returning aircraft needs fuel before it can land, or can't land and needs fuel to keep trying, or to fly to a land base.

And that's in flight refueling in a nutshell.

Originally posted by stealthyaroura
reply to post by boomer135

 

GREAT

bloody mint thread.Thankyou.
I know you will get asked this A LOT but any chance of a nice SR71? did they even take fuel on board in flight?
I would say not un less it's a classified prototype

Holy crap is that a hound dog nuclear missile strapped to that bomber

edit on 17/6/2013 by stealthyaroura because: sure thats a hound dog?

Ah, the SR-71. Doing the dance with the old Habu. The only time I was able to see an A/R with it was in training class for a NASA mission it was doing. Unfortuately, you have to be heavy qualified first, before being able to do fighters or luxury items like that so all I got to do was watch. It was dusk too, and during refueling the SR-71 uses one of its afterburners often so it was quite a site. And yes they take on alot of fuel.

Yep, thats the old hound dog on there. Pretty cool to see until you realize that you've been that close to a nuclear warhead I guess. lol

And based on your name I'll give you a little hint: The aurora isn't called the aurora. Cheers!

reply to post by Zaphod58


Pretty much nailed it. I'll add some data.

During boom refueling we can offload 6,000 pounds of fuel a minute. A gallon of fuel weighs around 6.7 pounds so you can do the math. The most I ever offloaded at one time was when a C-5 took off out of Al Udeid AB, Qatar carrying some classified cargo back non stop to the United States. We offloaded 105 thousand pounds of fuel in one contact, and for a short while increased the gross weight of the C-5 to over a million pounds.

Fighters can't do 6K a minute though because the pressure is too great with all four air refueling pumps running. Bigger fighters can do 2 pumps but most do just one pump, at around 1500 pounds a minutes fuel transfer.

Drouge A/R is alot less. Around 1,000 pounds a minute, and is what boom operators hate most. It's so boring doing drouge a/r. You just hold the boom there and they do all the work. Not fun at all. At lease MPRS you have something to do.

Which brings us to MPRS, or multi point refueling system. This is the pods on the wings that zaph is talking about. It's pretty cool system actually. Everything else in the boom pod is from the 50's and 60's and then you have this electronic panel sitting in front of you with buttons and controls! We basically enter the fuel offload in and then extend the pods out the back of the plane. The receivers come and latch on to the tit and when they hit that mark we entered, it stops pumping fuel.

On another note, the KC-46 is taking all the best from the KC-10 and KC-135, except the boom pod. No more window, no more hydralic fluid on the window, etc. The boom sits up front and uses 3d cameras for the depth perception while preforming A/R. But the KC-46 does have both a drouge and a boom, as well as MPRS pods on the wings, allowing for three receivers at once if they ever approve it.

This thread is an EXCELLENT opportunity to motivate some of the up and coming young un's to get there act together and join the forces.
Great publicity.
If these posts & epic pictures don't get peoples blood pumping then they cannot have a pulse Bah ! If only I we're 20 years younger It's inspirational stuff and puts the whole topic of unmanned drones into perspective by showing that there will still be great jobs that require human input well into the future.

I think so many people are under the impression that future conflicts will just be carried out by automated robots we need to see more of these threads They put a great message across & prove this would be an awesome career choice!
And you get to serve your country whilst having a great time.

Of course I am NOT attempting to glamorize the act of WAR,But I DO see the need to maintain an active deterrent.

reply to post by boomer135


that low level pic of the 111 is sick! this is an awesome thread man! Much respect.

eta; Zaph hurry up and correct me if it's something else

reply to post by howmuch4another


It looks like an F-111F, although it could be an FB-111 as well (it's damn near impossible to tell the two apart exernally).

reply to post by boomer135


Oh my!

I never thought I was into aviation until I looked at all those pictures! Amazing!

Thanks for sharing.

In my next life I wanna be a boomer!

Awesome Boomer, Just Mind Blowingly Awesome....is it just me or are the stealth Pilots Fuzzed out of the pics.....and if so Why??

reply to post by Soloprotocol


It's a combination of things. Both the windscreen on the stealth, and fluid on the window of the boom pod it looks like.

Here you go, found this on Flight today.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Awesome picture! Good find.

KC-135 and a C-5 comparison (Hickam)