More Planes Refueling in Flight
Over at the Google Earth Community they’ve found a fantastic sight - not one, but two planes about to be refuelled mid-flight over the California desert.
From their measurements, these appear to be F-16 fighter jets, moving in (or perhaps moving out) from a KC-10 “Extender” - a tanker which is derived from the commercial DC-10.
This sight is also unique on Google Earth in that it is perhaps the largest collection of planes found in mid-air at the same time, with 7 aircraft captured in a single image! Waiting behind the re-fueler are two further F-16s, and another pair are ahead - presumably they’ve already had their fill.
There’s a fantastic photograph of a DC-10 refuelling an F-16 at Wikipedia, and see our previous post showing another mid-flight refuelling.
Thanks to tsb60robert at the Google Earth Community.
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Does anyone think that this may be a training exercise as apposed to an actual refuelling?
I cant imagine the jets are travelling anywhere far enough away from base to justify a refuel in this location. I would have thought refuelling was usually undertaken over long stretches of water or when flying over ‘non’ friendly’ territory. Not Eastern California!
Perhaps they got a bit confused and are about to bomb this unsuspecting town nearby (you’ll need to switch SHOW LABELS on to get the ‘joke’)
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Ha, cookie monster, Bush and Rice are nearby! I sense a pattern here…
Am I the only one that only sees 5?
Hmm… Second try for the links
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
@nadavz - if you click on the first image in the post, you need to zoom out and pan to the north north west slightly and you should see the other two F-16’s
We got a bogey about 8.6 km east south east of the flight group!
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
oh, wait false alarm it’s a friendly KC-10.
If you use Google Earth and turn on Community Posts links, you will see there are dozens of jets in flight all over the area.
Which just adds weight to my ‘training exercise’ argument.
Or not.
That is cool. I just want to know, what causes the blue ‘ghost’ planes? At first I thought it was weird shadow lignting or something, but, looking closer, it’s superimposed on the big plane. Is it an after image because they are in motion, or because of their altitude, maybe both, or neither?
Thanks
From the previous post linked above:
“The image ghosting is caused by the way satellite photographs are taken in two parts; one is high-resolution, but in black and white, and the other is a lower resolution but captures the colour. The second image is then sharpened with the first to create the colour images we see in Google Earth.
However, in the case of planes in flight, the plane has moved slightly between the two photographs. Now if we just knew how many milliseconds apart the two images are taken you could calculate the speed of the aircraft.”
Presumably, practicing in-flight refueling would be part of many exercises, since (from what I understand) it’s dangerous and requires concentration from both crews.
They are probably practicing refueling, it is a very tough job.
Yep, practice refueling is fairly common, at least in the Navy since there are no “bingo” (divert) fields in the middle of the ocean, and refueling might be the only option if trapping aboard a carrier is a problem.
It’s very roughly 120 miles to Nellis AFB, so the _need_ for refueling probably isn’t there.
Some aircraft will take off with less than a full load of fuel, and refuel immediately, in preparation for a long mission. The SR-71 did that as standard practive, maybe the long range bombers also.
You wouldn’t want to refuel over unfriendly territory, or in the case of a stelathy operation, anywhere near the theatre of operations. The fueling tanker is too slow, and a huge radar target.
What makes Cookie Monster think California is friendly territory?