FSTA Refuels Spanish Air Force F-18 Fighters

The first Airbus Military A330 MRTT Future Strategic Transport Aircraft (FSTA) for the UK's Royal Air Force has successfully completed its first contacts with a receiver aircraft. In a 2 hour 40 min sortie from Getafe near Madrid on 13th December, the FSTA conducted a series of dry contacts with a Spanish Air Force F-18 fighter as planned.

RAF MRTT First Refueling Contact

The contacts were made using the Fuselage Refuelling Unit (FRU), which is a hose and drogue similar to those fitted under the wings, but which instead trails from the rear fuselage of the aircraft. It can provide a higher fuel transfer rate and be used with receiver aircraft that prefer centerline refuelling. Like the underwing system, it is also developed and supplied by Cobham of the UK.

In the course of that flight and a subsequent sortie, contacts were successfully performed thoughout the refuelling flight-envelope at altitudes from 8,000ft to 35,000ft and speeds from 180kt to 325kt.

RAF MRTT

This is the first time that the FRU has been used to make contact and means that all of the A330 MRTT's refuelling systems have now completed contacts - they are the FRU, underwing hose-and-drogue, and the Airbus Military Aerial Refuelling Boom System (ARBS), plus the Universal Aerial Refuelling Receptacle Slipway Installation (UARRSI) used to receive fuel from another tanker.

FMI: www.airbus.com