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maddog
Joined: 17 Jul 2000
Posts: 11
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Did anyone see this
 Tue Nov 07, 2000 8:12 am
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I live in Chicago and last Sunday October 29, 2000, I saw 5 tankers flying in formation about 300 m apart in a staggered fromation all spraying, I did not get a picture because i too slow but if anyone did or has seen something like this let me know. |
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Falcon
Joined: 04 Aug 2000
Posts: 87
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Wed Nov 08, 2000 12:58 am
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Maddog, SO WHAT?!
It's a regular feature of numerous military exercises world wide. You describe them as "tankers", were they? You don't know, there may have two tankers and three transports or any variation of the above.
After all, we all have to train for various tasking requirements. |
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maddog
Joined: 17 Jul 2000
Posts: 11
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Wed Nov 08, 2000 6:04 pm
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There were five KC-135 stratotankers, I should have been more specific. I know formation flying is SOP in the armed forces, but five 135's flying so close, and at such a low altitiude, and all spraying? I was just curious if anyone has seen this before. |
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LTC8K6
Joined: 20 Oct 2000
Posts: 267
Location: Tar Heel State |
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Wed Nov 08, 2000 9:49 pm
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How did 1,000 feet get to be "so close"? |
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maddog
Joined: 17 Jul 2000
Posts: 11
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Wed Nov 08, 2000 10:09 pm
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It looked pretty close too me, whats the closest a formation of aircraft that large could fly? |
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LTC8K6
Joined: 20 Oct 2000
Posts: 267
Location: Tar Heel State |
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Wed Nov 08, 2000 10:41 pm
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Apparently I have no idea.
How did you estimate their altitude/separation? It's very hard to do. |
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Falcon
Joined: 04 Aug 2000
Posts: 87
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Thu Nov 09, 2000 1:27 am
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LTC8K6, good point.
It's very difficult to judge distances and altitudes from the ground. As for how close large a/c can fly to each other, outside the SOPs it pretty much comes down to pilot skill and ability at formation flight! Have you ever seen how close you have to get during air to air refueling in a big jet?
What height were these guys "spraying" at? |
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maddog
Joined: 17 Jul 2000
Posts: 11
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Thu Nov 09, 2000 3:01 am
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The way I judged distance was by its size. I live close to O'Hare Intnl airport, about 25 miles and thier approach altitude is approximately 8,000 ft when they pass over my house, according to the FAA. The ammount of detail I could see was just a hair less than the detail I could see on a coomercial 707, which is the same plane. The distance between I just judged, but it might be a bad guess. |
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Blackclaw
Joined: 01 Nov 2000
Posts: 7
Location: Dayton, Ohio |
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Thu Nov 09, 2000 3:44 am
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I flew on an air refueling flight as an observer aboard a KC-135. I'd say the distance was less than twenty feet.
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-Blackclaw |
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Thermit
Joined: 08 Jul 2000
Posts: 3136
Location: Texas |
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Thu Nov 09, 2000 4:28 am
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Blackclaw, is that the distance between refueler and refuelee? That seems a bit close for formation flying of multiple tankers...
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Thermit on 11-08-2000] |
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maddog
Joined: 17 Jul 2000
Posts: 11
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Thu Nov 09, 2000 8:27 am
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At any rate, they were really close, unusually close. I always thought that planes that large would cause too much turbulence, but I am not an aerospace engineer. |
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Falcon
Joined: 04 Aug 2000
Posts: 87
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Thu Nov 09, 2000 5:20 pm
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Flying Very close is a well known and well used tactic. It makes it very difficult for a radar operator to assess how many a/c are in the formation. It has to be practiced as does the refuelling. |
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Blackclaw
Joined: 01 Nov 2000
Posts: 7
Location: Dayton, Ohio |
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Fri Nov 10, 2000 3:41 am
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That was the distance between the the tanker and the receiver. (Although at one point we hit a bit of turbulance and the nose of the plane we were refueling lifted up and I thought it was going to get a whole lot closer.) The tanker I was in was the tail end of a three member trail formation with a separation of about one mile.
But essentially the aircraft we were refueling (A big plane, a KC-10. Yes, we were refueling another tanker. It was kind of a weird night.) was flying close formation with us. It's just not something big planes like to do for very long because it takes a lot of pilot concentration. But in WWII, bomber pilots did it for hours on end.
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-Blackclaw |
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goldrush
Joined: 04 Sep 2000
Posts: 109
Location: No, Calif. USA |
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Fri Nov 10, 2000 5:12 am
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Check this site out for formation pictures and aircraft groupings. See if there is something similar to what you saw. http://www.131.84.1.31/photos/aircraft.html |
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