Why Aerial Refuelling Is Most Challenging Manoeuvre For A Pilot | Richard Hammond's Big

Right now they're starting the engines. There are four. They're beaming. They take some starting. It's coming to life. Despite its enormous size, the Super Galaxy is capable of an assault take-off and landing on a short runway of just 914 metres. Because we're a little bit heavy today, we're going to use the full power take-off, so a little faster acceleration than you would normally get. Hopefully you enjoy it. We'll push the power all the way up, and this airplane will climb pretty quickly at MCL, which is max take-off. So you'll see our airspeed here. You'll hear me call 80 knots. When we get to 80, that's our first go-no-go point. So after 80 knots, we're only going to stop the airplane if something catastrophic happens that would make it unsafe to fly. Once we get to 80, the next thing you'll see is go at 122. If something goes wrong after 80, we can still stop the airplane, but if something goes wrong after 122, we're committed to flight. OK, I'll be watching those numbers. Yeah, let me know if you see anything. OK. We've got a 55 heavy, runway one taxi via Lima, left turn out of park. Contact tower ready. The flight crew are aiming to get this massive plane airborne in just over 20 seconds. Get our clearance and get out of here. We are about as poised as you can be. All right, crew, stiff take-off. Winds are from right to left. Here we go. That was clearance for take-off. Immense thrust building, vibrating through the whole aircraft. 80 knots. 122. Two seconds. Look at the size of this thing. That whole process felt surprisingly graceful and gentle. The Super Galaxy can carry cargo for almost 9,000 kilometres without refuelling, but sometimes even that's not far enough. The plane's designers couldn't add more fuel tanks, so instead they came up with a radical solution, a mid-air filling station that enables almost unlimited range. And right now, a trainee pilot is about to practice refuelling at over 480 kilometres an hour, 6,000 metres above the ground. Just think about it for a moment. Somebody realised, yeah, big planes couldn't carry big fuel loads to make big enough distances. So somebody said aloud, I know, why don't we get one as a tanker and a pipe and connect it to that aeroplane in the air whilst they're moving? And what staggers me is people went, yep, that's worth a go, we'll give it a shot. So somebody had to do it for the first time. Two planes closing on each other, the tanker's boom operator prepares for action. And as if the thought of flying directly behind another plane at 7,500 metres wasn't terrifying enough, it turns out the Super Galaxy's vast size throws off the aerodynamics of the tanker. If you imagine the air rushing over our nose, it's actually pushing up on the tanker. Yep. So every time we go up or down, they have to react to it. The planes are now so close to each other that our Super Galaxy creates a barrier that the tanker plane has to move. The jet wash from the tanker creates turbulence that affects our plane's huge tail. That noise from overhead is where the hatch is opened up, ready to receive the probe. You can hear it vibrating through the flight deck. We're about to attempt docking, and Captain Koresh is giving way to Captain Alex Jensen. She's just upgraded to aircraft commander, but hasn't connected to a tanker like this one for over six months. Welcome. Alright, you ready to get one pilot? Ready. Go. One of the hardest things is getting on right now, that's the buffeting you feel. So just the time when you need most precision, it's hardest to fly. Exactly. Top ten lists of insane things I've ever been involved in doing. This is number one. My heart's in my mouth, along with a few other major organs. Throttle, throttle, throttle, throttle, check altitude. You can see the EQ exhaust, as we start to lose that, that'll be 50 feet. That clunk was us connecting. One. I keep telling myself, this is not a game. This is real. These guys are doing this for real. You're looking good, you're perfect. Yeah. Much to my relief, Captain Jensen has docked with perfect precision. On an actual mission, up to 23,000 litres of fuel is exchanged, so she has to keep the plane connected for another five minutes. And what's more, as part of her training, she has to follow the tanker as it banks into a steep turn. So I'll hand it to you in the turn. Whenever you're ready. When I thought things could get no more intense, while still connected, we've gone into a turn. Both planes now banking, through a turn to the left, whilst connected. There's a better view. I'll set just a little bit to the right right now, just to keep our vertical stabiliser out of the jetwash. We are now disconnected, Leslie. I've never witnessed such precision in operation with human beings working with such finessed skills under such pressure and circumstances. Most impressive thing I've ever seen done. Barnard.