Australian A330 Tanker Test Validates Key KC-45 Tanker
Concept
The EADS A330 Multi-Role Tanker
Transport (MRTT)currently in production for four allied nations
marked another major performance milestone with the first in-flight
refueling performed from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) A330
MRTT utilizing its integrated Aerial Refueling Boom System
(ARBS).
The contacts and subsequent fuel transfers were made with two
F-16 receiver aircraft and validated the advanced ARBS handling
qualities, precision, and stability on the A330 MRTT, as well as
the capabilities of its 3-D vision system. The flight lasted
four hours and 30 minutes, with more than 3,300 pounds of fuel
transferred during 13 contacts.
EADS' fly-by-wire ARBS is one of the key technological
discriminators for the A330 MRTT and Northrop Grumman's KC-45
offering to the U.S. Air Force, providing the only digital,
all-electric fly-by-wire refueling system available today.
The ARBS has already made more than 250 wet and dry contacts
with a wide range of receiver aircraft, in a full range of
operating conditions and throughout the flight envelope, while the
boom was deployed on an EADS test-bed aircraft.
"This significant milestone demonstrates the maturity of the
world's most modern aerial refueling boom system as integrated on
the only next-generation tanker aircraft in production today," said
Ralph D. Crosby, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EADS
North America. "The A330 MRTT is one important step closer to
service introduction with a key allied military service, the Royal
Australian Air Force."
File Photo
"The ARBS was just as smooth and easy to control during these
contacts as it has been in all our prior work with it," said Don
Cash, boom operator for the A330 MRTT test flight. "The
precision of the system makes the boom feel just like an extension
of my arm."
Cash is a retired U.S. Air Force boom operator with more than 20
years experience aboard the KC-135 and KC-10, and has been on the
ARBS design team for five years. "I've had the needs of the
warfighter in mind from the beginning, and we've arrived at a
system that offers them a level of performance and reliability
unmatched by any system available in the world today and for the
foreseeable future."
The RAAF's A330 MRTT is similar in configuration to Northrop
Grumman's KC-45 Tanker offered for the U.S. Air Force to
recapitalize its aging aerial refueling fleet. Both aircraft
are equipped with the EADS ARBS, plus a pair of all-digital Cobham
905E refueling pods under the wings. This mix of boom and pod
refueling technologies ensures the A330 MRTT and KC-45 can transfer
fuel to all types of receiver aircraft during a single mission
without reconfiguration. The KC-45 also offers a centerline
hose-and-drogue fuselage refueling unit.
ARBS Ground Test
The boom's maximum nominal fuel flow
rate is 1,200 gallons per minute, while the pods can deliver up to
420 gallons of fuel per minute. Aerial refueling operations
are controlled from a state-of-the-art Remote Aerial Refueling
Operator console in the cockpit behind the pilots, incorporating
the enhanced vision system with laser infrared lighting and
high-definition digital stereoscopic viewing.
"I have situational awareness and a field of view that far
exceed anything I ever had during my Air Force career," Cash said,
"with crystal-clear visuals night or day."
EADS North America is a principal teammate on Northrop Grumman's
KC-45 Tanker program, and is responsible for delivering the
aircraft platform, which will be produced at a new aerospace center
of excellence to be built in Mobile, Ala.
Airbus Military, an EADS company, is responsible for the design
and production of the A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport for
international customers, which today includes Australia, the United
Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Orders from
those countries total 28 aircraft. The A330 MRTT has won all
of the international competitions for new-generation aerial tankers
since 2004.
The RAAF will receive its first of five A330 MRTTs in 2010, two
of which have completed conversion and currently are in flight
test. Upon delivery to the RAAF, they will be designated the
KC-30A.