HocusPenis
98630
2002
32
If at first you don't succeed
Jul 12, 2019 8:43 PM
HocusPenis
98630
2002
32
Sphinxycat
This is how baby planes are made
t4piwa
Username kind of checks out
SackOcrap
Pilot be like...
DiscountMentat
"Oh you almost had it! You gotta be quicker than that!" -the boom operator, probably
GlacticGator
Some times you gotta spit on it.
TheDudeupNorth
Its funny. Because sex. Some people have sex. Funny...
TallyReign
Came back to upvote this
DetectiveHorse
Could learn a thing or two from this guy.
fukitol
As a maintainer who works on the structure/coatings thanks for not causing too many boom strikes
niftycabbage
What is a boom strike? Hard contact?
ApexOtter
Yeah your sas is bad enough
fukitol
Hey now, we can’t control that lol
ScrewMyVacationPlansIGuess
As a 35 crew chief, I always dread hearing that my jet hit tankers, no one wants to wait on LO
fukitol
We all got jobs to do. At least we have good job security
Kilsta
When a Daddy KC-135 Loves a Mommy F-22, they do the special hug.
MikeMcAwesome91
Boom operator after the the 5th attempt:
RichardPOsterior
Would probably be easier if the damn tanker pilot would stop turning!
imacowbark
"back 4, return to astern" then "wtf is this guy doing" on interphone
Vegonbrei
The pilot:
servingmytimeinusersub
I love all this site.
Elviondel
#metoo
gooftroop
It's not Science Fiction, it's what we do every day.
teufelpup
So is this more the pilots fault? Or the boom operators?
MikeMcAwesome91
Pilots job is to get close and match speed of the other aircraft. You can tell that he was having trouble matching the other aircrafts speed
Tastesicle
Pilot. He/she is new, the refuelling plane / boom operator are smooth. Watch how the pilot bounces (not used to controls) and remains too
Tastesicle
Far to one side. Good job though, I wouldn't be able to do it, just armchair criticize!
NukeItFromOrbitMan
Maybe not. It coukd be training mission. Student pilots.
snozzleburt
Every mission is training (except real brrrt ones)
NukeItFromOrbitMan
I still laughed tho.
RedPandasAreGoddamnAdorable
This is exactly correct. This was his first time attempting a refuel in a F-22
AncientPostNecromancer
He did really well tbh. He may have broken off purposfully after the first two hookups to practice more.
IIBatmanIIDeleted
Well.... This is definitely my pron night
RPCharImages
I wonder how much the pilot swore doing this...
shoulkion
If at first you don't succeed, you're still wasting fuel.
HappyClamsters
Crossed an entire country
NOTSAYINJUSTSAYIN
Nobody Kicks Ass Without Tanker Gas...
thevortexmaster
Like a honeybee going for a flower
politelyinsane007
Is it in yet?
howamistillpooping
Fly fly again
Its332amAndMyDogNeedsAWalk
Try, try, try, try, try, try again?
AmbroseGudmaker
Destroy all evidence and silence all witnesses of the attempt
ozlia
reminds me of the time I popped my cherry.
piratedn1nj4
Looks windy.
Gauntlet2013
If at third you don’t succeed
Snausagebort
That username....are you my uncle??
Gantzz321
in this day of computer technology you would think that this process could be done via computer
Loxachi
There is once you can get it on the boom. Gotta still get it there though
LordSerapis
MK 1 eyeball is probably best. The last thing you want is for a bit overflow to occur and put the boom through the cockpit.
Gantzz321
sounds like 1960's logic
LordSerapis
True, but it seems that an AI for this task would have to be fairly advanced to account for all of the likely possibilities, and since 1/2
LordSerapis
2/2 such equipment is made by the lowest bidder, it seems likely to me that any early system will run into... difficulties.
trogmaniac
I've always wondered how much the person who first suggested refueling planes in the air was laughed at.
moeojelly
I always think it's funny the Poms were offered VW for free after WWII and said no
3P3references
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/KB-29M_Air_Refueling.jpg
Billie2feathers
Back in the 30's a plane flew from NY to San Francisco with landing. It was refueled by airplanes staged along the way who would 1/
Billie2feathers
meet it then lower small barrels of fuel down to the flight mechanic thru a hatch in the roof. He then fueled the plane and sent 2/
Billie2feathers
the barrels back up to the carrier plane.
twfeline
The first mid-air refueling involved lowering cans of gasoline on a rope, from one plane to another. At least it was a start.
poscduke
Not as much as when they tried to hold a nuclear powered plane
Acrage
Probably about as much as the person who first suggested flight.
CaptainAsshat
Who, the first caveman who could speak? Pretty sure the dream of human flight has existed just a little shorter than humanity.
zigbigidorlu
Tbf, I don't think they had the formula quite figured out when they proposed it at first.
Imafishwithlegs
Couldn’t have been laughed at anymore than Reagan when he suggested the plans for the “star wars program”
rebel1996
The plan was amazing and in fact was a huge worry for the Communist. They knew they couldn’t compete with the defense only system
Imafishwithlegs
But making it practical and the cost of such a system is what killed it, great in theory, difficult in execution
malikcarr
"Brilliant Pebbles" actually worked, you could totally moot any land-based nuclear arsenal with that. Google it.
pleaseconsiderthatImightbejoking
But the Soviets couldn't be sure, so they wasted a shitload of money trying to counter it that could have been much better used.
rivitingone
Simi related. In 1958-59 two guys flew for just under 65 days straight. They refueled in mid air from a truck on the ground.
twfeline
Did this involve driving a truck with 55-gal drums of gasoline, at 110 mph?
aquamaniam
Planes use jet fuel. It's essentially very clean kerosene with static displacer.
aquamaniam
Well, smaller plans like Cessna use Aviation gasoline. It's around 120 octane, and will burn out gaskets and pit normal car engines.
SittingInClass
But... poop.
YesMyNameIsCalvin
Hole in a seat and floor under it
Anarchduke
The airplane they flew was the rare model "Manpigeon "
paranoidplatinum
"semi" related.
rivitingone
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2008/march/01/endurance-test-circa-1958
IMayOrMayNotHaveTroubleFindingAndOrChoosingAUsername
That was a great read. Also; completely insane. -- Aircraft is hanging in baggage claim area at McCarran International Airport.
rath
This whole story is pretty amazing.
TedFromTEDtalks
"Through-firewall plumbing was installed so that the engine oil and oil filters could be changed without shutting off the engine."
rivitingone
This might be my favorite part. They did all the maintenance in flight. Blows my mind.
Every1friend
The planes hovered??
Truie
Larger wing to body ratio = slower idle speed. (Don't actually know anything about the plane in the test just my knowledge of aeronautics)
GriffinMann41
Straight road, good driver, good pilot, lots of hope.
BenSnow97
the cold war era was friggin crazy, still weird to think they went to the moon with a worse navigation system than Kerbal Space Program's
Krympehl
you can go to the moon in KSP? :|
squirreltactics
It was the cold war. I doubt they were.
thundercactus
A Soviet scientist suggested it, the idea was dismissed and the work made public, Americans did it, and the Soviets copied them (reference..
thundercactus
to stealth tech, satire)
tomatoboy
For folks missing the satire part, this is inaccurate. The person who suggested it WAS of Russian birth, however. But, he left Russia...
tomatoboy
...DURING the Revolution and thus was never “Soviet.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_P._de_Seversky
projecthelios
It was well before the cold war. And they were, until they figured it out.
tomatoboy
“The first mid-air refueling...occurred on June 27, 1923, between two Airco DH-4B biplanes of the United States Army Air Service.”
tomatoboy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_refueling
erelyes
Fun fact, SR-71 blackbird couldn't take off with anything more than a token fuel load. So they had to take off and then immediately refuel
bigbrotheriswatchingu
Here is a interesting link about it http://franciscoalario.aero/lockheed-sr71-blackbird/
malikcarr
There's a *very* good reason for this, it's very much a feature rather than a bug.
bigbrotheriswatchingu
Because the plane leaked fuel on the ground. The atmospheric pressure had to seal the tank.
GlobalIntrovertsClub
IIRC they were allowing for thermal expansion of the skin of the aircraft due to the friction of traveling at such high speed
Goryofa
Yeah all the weirdness in its design was mostly about the insane heat the air friction created at Mach 3.
jridley
Wasn't pressure, it was heat. It flew so fast that it compressed the air it was flying into, heating it up a lot.
ChiefRocker88
Same as how sometimes when I run really fast, it gets hotter.
BobHubert
I had a teacher who had the chance to do this once, she said that they didn’t even put parachutes on the plane cause, ya know, boom
fustigate
On which jet? The refueling aircraft? That's not why they don't carry chutes. This looks like a KC-135. The E-3 (not quite same airframe)...
BobHubert
On the refueling plane
fustigate
doesn't carry chutes anymore. Less fuel there, so that's not the reason. (For E-3s, the escape hatch only works in theory. Chutes require...
fustigate
too much maintenance.)
OneUpperSteve
Your other choice is to run out of fuel and emergency land/ crash, so, yeah try, try again.
ReturnWinchester
Nah, they've planned out their gas to a point where they knock off training and land. This is not a dire scenario.
olds97lss
Is this sped up? Regardless... doesn't look like a fun process.
supraman2turbo
Having done it in a video game where the consequences are I just reload the game, it is amazingly difficult and stressful. It is 1/2
plustootwostoopid
Yeah it’s way sped up
supraman2turbo
constant stick and throttle work and it is nothing but micro adjustments over and and over and over 2/2
TCGView
I have to imagine this is a lot harder than it may seem.
Loxachi
Way, way, way fucking harder than it seems. After the first few times it gets easier though.
waywardneutron
Fun fact, it's harder on a simulator than IRL, due to the lack of depth perception and the feel of the airplane.
MrHarmless
Funner fact, pilots who track T-38s dont get practice at refueling until their follow on training. This is probably his first time.
monkey484
The basket ones always made more sense to me than the boom style. This is why.
ozjuggler
Plus the horizontal drogue design is more versatile, which is why the Super Stallion helicopters can use it too.
MrHarmless
Drogues can't pump fuel fast enough. Booms are faster by a factor of over 10.
malikcarr
Doesn't that only matter for E-3s and B-52s? I read a while ago that fighters generally can't suck up fuel faster than a drogue can deliver.
ttimbric
Shoundn't autopilot have mastered this? Do drones refuel?
InspiredForestRaptor
Good questions
RedPandasAreGoddamnAdorable
It's too complex and variable for autopilot.
TheLockheedMartini
Not true, the X-47B completed autonomous aerial refuelling in 2014, it also can take off and land on aircraft carriers, no pilot.
Loxachi
Most American military planes have the ability to stay in position once connected to the boom. You have to still get it on the boom though.
somnif
Most "drones" are piloted, no idea if they do midflight refueling though.
somnif
Whenceitcame
Normally, no. They rely heavily on weather operators to tell them if conditions are in their favor, predicting if they'll have 1/2
Whenceitcame
Wind currents pushing them to/from a mission, of course the pilots sometimes forget to check their fuel and crash the shit...recovery time..
fustigate
[Citation needed]
Whenceitcame
Some Friends are pilots(military and civilian remote pilots) and others are weather operations specialist in chair force.
wholesomeexplanation
I'm having NES Top Gun flashbacks D:
IIBatmanIIDeleted
Looks like my pron night
HipsterFett
ericDFish
Ah man, now I have the song in my head.
Bearsbeatsbattlestargalactic
I did too but when I hummed it it came out as the Dallas theme song. Weird.
Snausagebort
For a decade I thought I was just terrible until the internet later revealed that everyone struggled and it was just a shit game.
lokitoki81
Maybe the hardest game in the history of games
CyberAkuma
Gotta use a Power Glove of course
ADDGirl
I never got past the refuel part.
LightningMcQueef
Took me forever to get the hang of that shit in 6th grade
zdriver984
Holy shit I forgot about that!!
TatersWhatsTatersPrecious
Yeah they only gave you a few tries too
TheShiv0724
Apparently the way to land was in the instruction manual all along. We were just stupid kids who were too cool to read.
omgitsfullofstars
I don't think i ever actually got that to work,tbh.
Nintendobama
Jesus my damn aneurysm is acting up from that game
iMakeFakeLegs
landing on that flight deck was my worst nightmare
Br0doSwaggins
CallMeThreeGunsGreg
AAAASSSSSSSSS! FUUUUUCK!!!!
manamongstyou
I had totally forgotten about this. Pretty sure I only landed like 20%of the time
wholesomeexplanation
The number of times I watched that animation is obscene
TooOldAndTiredToPutUpWithThisSh
You sir, are as old as me.
thetallfreak
Dude that game was amazing!
foreverdark5
Same here
DavidRodriguezJr
Used to love that game.
KaJuN
It could have been worse...
beachbum273
Wasn't this one a flicker on part of the tanker? I seem to remember something like that.
Loxachi
Yeah I think LIGO would have picked up a micro singularity coming from that guys Anus....
Studbacker31
As much as i want to make fun of this clip I'm pretty sure I've been the source of a boomer's butt pucker or two.
ScrewMyVacationPlansIGuess
What do you fly?