Thinking Loud - Aircraft Puller

[graphican]

Hello everybody,

The Idea I am going to pitch is crazy and I know many would laugh at this.. but even then I am putting it here for your feedback.

Mid Flight Refuelles are one good way to enhance the ferry range of an aircraft but I am thinking an alternate to that. What if we could convert large airplanes like C-130 or better ones into Air-Craft pullers?

Small airplanes like JF-17s can fly on their own but later attach themselves to the "strings" of Aircraft-Pullers during first 10-20 minutes of flight and turn off their own engines, saving fuel and flight hours and whenever needed, they can isolate themselves and get on their own for the attacking or defensing purpose.

The thought is crazy but IMHO, it has one advantage over Air Tankers. This Approach is rather simplistic and easily applicable over older birds plus this would allow even deeper striking capability. In the case of fuel tankers, they would need to provide fuel staying within safe territory but this "system" can enter deeper because fighter jets will always be there to protect the tanker. Second, multiple air-crafts could be pulled and time needed to fuel one aircraft at a time would be saved.

OR lets think about a hybrid approach, an Air-Craft Refuelles with Pulling capacity added to it. Feel free to comment.

 

[BlackenTheSky]

Well the situation will be like if you will switch off the Aircraft in the air then itsgonna be swinging like pendulum clock.as shown in your pic.

 

[Hulk]

I feel the aircraft might bring the puller down. Also the pulling action can put lot of strain on puller and the plane getting pulled.

 

[Gin ka Pakistan]

I think you are referring to same concept of gliders

 

[pak-yes]

well if the thing holding the JF-17 is rigid then might be a chance.But i think the strain would be just too great for any metal to handle.

 

[gambit]

Code One Magazine Online: January 1993 - Aerial Refueling Print Version

In some instances, a pilot may prefer being locked onto the boom to be towed. During the Desert Shield deployment, for example, a KC-135 towed an F-4 part way across the Atlantic when the fighter experienced partial power loss. During the Gulf War, a fighter with serious fuel leaks caused by battle damage was towed by a tanker pumping fuel in as fast as it was leaking out. While tankers can't tow a powerless aircraft, they can dramatically slow the rate of descent of a disabled aircraft.

This instance was not the first time a refueler became an airborne 'tow truck' for damaged fighters. There were others back during the Vietnam War and when the damaged fighter momentarily and suddenly lost engine thrust, the connection broke and the pair had to re-engage. Still...The refueling system is not structurally designed to bear the weight of a powerless aircraft. The damaged fighter must have enough engine thrust to support most of its weight. Probably the only fighter that can do this is an F-16 and that would be stretching the whole idea.

 

[Trisonics]

not possible... may be in ideal conditions but other wise as soon as the master aircraft hits turbulence the plane will crash. Air crafts behave different based on size, so in turbulence the master aircraft will deploy uneven forces on the other aircraft which will cause wild swinging and you know the rest

 

[illuminatus]

If the whole concept is about enhancing the ferry range of an aircraft I can only think of CFTs for this particular purpose. I wouldn't be too worried about the combat radius of JF-17. The A2A refuellers will come in very handy for this purpose. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the overall range of JF-17 is improved in consequent batches. Previous ACM has conveyed his thoughts about the drastic need to improve the range of JF-17 Thunder.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Engine Burn out for the large plane

 

[asq]

I haVE ALSO BEEN THINKING OF SOME IMPROVEMENTS IN PLANES FOR THIER SAFETY IN AIR AND FOR LANDING IN WATER.

A SYSTEM INSTALLED ON TOP AT EACH SIDE WITH ROUND CYLENDER CONTAINING PARACHUTES TO BE USEd IN CASE PLANE RUNS OUT OF FUEL OR TECHNICAL TROUBLES, ALSO PONTOONS INSTASLLED UNDER BELLY CONTAINING IN TWO CYLENDERICAL SHAPED CONTAINER TO BE USED IN THE TIME OF TROUBLES TO LAND IN WATER.

 

[Sapper]

Dear,

What you are presenting here has already been thoroughly tested using "Airborne Aircraft Carrier" concept, back in the cold war days.

links for reference:
Airborne aircraft carrier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Airborne Aircraft Carriers

Although the idea seemed promising, the current size of even largest aircrafts allow only one or possible two fighters of sufficient size to be launched from the carrier bird. This is itself very in-efficient so the idea has been dropped until a time "Battlestar-Galactica" sized airships are a reality, and at which time entire squadrons can be launched from the base-ship.

It will still take dozens if not hundreds of years for fiction to become fact, till then lets keep our fingers crossed.

Regards,
Sapper

 

[nightrider_saulat]

i think you are talking against the concept of physics
just how can a body of more then 2000 kg can remain calm without any engine force at such height

 

[skeptic9]

One puller per aircraft or multiple aircrafts per puller?

One-one seems possible but not sure about the costs.

 

[Sinnerman108]

That is practically not possible for the following reasons

1. The "puller" has to have lift = puller weight + pulled air craft weight
2. The tension cord has to be of material tough enough to carry TONS !
3. The Engine power and /fuel consumption and fuselage design for those specs is not possible.
4. If the pulled air craft are gliders this may be possible, but gliders are no good for fighting !
5. There is no point strong enough in an air craft's fuselage which can take all it's weight... that is ANTI design.

so on and so forth.

 

[ice_man]

this concept is not new! infact if you have watched the famous movie saving ryan's PRIVATES you would have noticed that gliders were used to drop soldiers behind enemy lines! these gliders were towed by bombers! so a concept is not new! however this hasn't been tried ever with fighters! besides an idle fighter being towed would really create alot of drag as well as structural fatigue!! so this concept is nice to dream of however it is unpractical with engines turned off!