GB1259461A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1,259,461. Aircraft refuelling apparatus; floating tanks. FLIGHT REFUELLING Ltd. 21 July, 1969 [22 July, 1968], No. 34956/68. Headings B7A and B7G. [Also in Divisions E2 and F2] Refuelling apparatus for a hovering aircraft comprises a coupling member 12, Fig. 3, connected by a hose 15 to a fuel storage container 1, Fig. 2, within a non-airborne member such as a buoy, a retractable coupling member or nozzle sinker 21 which can be lowered from the aircraft to engage the hose coupling 12 and raised again to be engaged with an airborne fuel hose coupling means 30, Fig. 5, and control means responsive to electrical control signals for effecting connection of the retractable coupling member and the non-airborne fuel hose coupling. Reception of a radio signal (tone A) by a lowpower receiver in the buoy causes a power plant therein to be switched on and an encircling band 19 to be actuated to move toggle levers 16 out of the path of the nozzle sinker 21, which has been unlocked from the aircraft coupling 30, Fig. 5, and lowered into position as shown in Fig. 3. Then a second signal (tone B) releases the band 19, allowing the levers 16 to be moved by jacks 17 to grip the nozzle sinker by engagement in groove 22. The nozzle sinker and hose coupling are then raised up and locked to the aircraft coupling, whereupon the aircraft fuel tanks are connected to a three-way valve 6, Fig. 2, of the buoy by a fuel-tight passage. Transmission of a third tone C causes a fuel pump 2 to be rendered operative and the valve 6 toconnect the pump to the hose reel outlet, thereby allowing fuel to be transferred. Tone C is re-transmitted on completion of the fuel transfer, causing cessation of pumping and connection by valve 6 of the hose with the fuel containing buoy 1, so that fuel can drain from the hose to the container with the aid of air entering the hose via a valve 34, Fig. 5, in the aircraft coupling 30. The nozzle sinker 21 is then unlocked from the aircraft coupling and lowered back to the buoy, the hose reel reeling in the hose until the hose coupling is again located in the throat of the divergent cone 10 of the buoy. Retransmission of tone B allows the nozzle sinker 21 to be disengaged from the hose coupling 12 and to be hoisted back into the aircraft. The buoy power plant may then be switched off by retransmission of tone A or by a time switch incorporated in the buoy.