N.K.A.W.T.G – NOBODY KICKS ASS WITHOUT TANKER GAS
The mysterious headline of this article needs no Latin translation skills as it is the unofficial tanker pilot motto: Nobody Kicks Ass Without Tanker Gas. In this article, we will take a look at the history of air refuelling, a closer look at the dominant tanker aircraft of the USAF and we will take to the skies on an air refuelling mission with the 351st Air Refuelling Squadron which is part of the 100th Air Refuelling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, England.

THE HISTORY OF AIR-TO-AIR REFUELLING
The first attempts to refuel one aircraft in the air from another took place back in the early 1920s. The first successful air refuelling was finally conducted on 27 June 1923, between two Airco DH-4B bi-planes from the US Army Air Service. The refuelling was carried out by lowering a hose from the top aircraft to the receiving aircraft which was flying below and behind. One of the crew members on the receiving aircraft had to catch the hose and then manually insert it into the normal filling point. Just one month later three DH-4B aircraft, two tankers and one receiver aircraft, set a world record by keeping the receiver aircraft in the air for over thirty seven hours. This was made possible by nine air refuelling’s during which 2600L of fuel and 140L of engine oil were transferred. During the 1920s and ‘30s, the techniques and the equipment used for air refuelling were refined and in 1935, the record for the longest time in the air had been raised to twenty seven days. Air refuelling was still a complex and dangerous task and it was not until the late 1930s that Richard Atcherley from the RAF developed the first practical air-refuelling system called the “looped-hose”. Even with a more convenient and safe method to perform air-refuelling, it was still seen as something that was most useful for long-haul commercial aircraft. It was only during the very last months of WWII that the USAAF began to consider using air-refuelling to extend the range of their bombers during the expected battle for the Japanese mainland. However, the war ended before these plans could be implemented. After the war, the USAF rebuilt a small number of B-29 Superfortress aircraft so they could act as air-refuelling aircraft and refuel other B-29’s and the later B-50 bombers...

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