Originally Posted by
BDGERJMN
Just out of curiosity, when would 280 or even 260 be too slow. My point is sometimes taking gas(in a Hornet) at FL330 for instance with 2 tanks and 3 2Klb JDAM on the pods on the outside of a turn makes staying in the basket much higher than 280KIAS a difficult chore.
It's been a bit long for me to quote numbers, and I can only speak from KC135 experience, but I think the dash 3 (or whatever they call the document that replaced it) has most of your answers.
I will speak generally for OPSEC reasons--Normal AR altitudes for most planes are well below the altitudes you are talking about. An optimum, or planning altitude for receivers, is published. At higher altitudes, mach effects may be significant. The tanker gross weight may affect AR speed or tanker flap configuration.
Turbulence you've sometimes seen is likely from higher than normal power settings and high AOA for relatively low speed/high gross weight AR.
Autopilot off is (or used to be) a low frequency continuation training event. Receivers doing their own training will request this and generally cover our requirements. You may see a spike in tanker requests in JUN and DEC as laggards complete their requirements.
By the way, it is not possible to "lock the boom" for drogue receivers.
I'm just an old tanker guy, so I don't know much, but I think the DOD wants the big tankers not to replace the 135, but to replace the C141 or, rather, the C17s that we did not buy. They want a big plane for lift, if it does AR too so much the better. LJS is right, the 135 isn't going anywhere for a long time.
I'd bet on a big investment in sims for the 135 so volume training and qual and inst checks could be done in the sim. Innovations on the actual aircraft would be a lot cheaper than new plane--improved leading edge devices, thrust reversers (yes, I know), VNAV capability, autothrottles, etc. are unlikely but possible.
WW