Friday, February 12, 2016

Can Commercial planes refuel in air?

Nope.

Commercial aircrafts like Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 cannot be refueled in air. Planes that can be refueled are strictly designed for military purposes.



Commercial aircrafts are designed for scheduled flights. It's a law by FAA to not let any aircraft up in the air unless they have a flight plan that was approved by airport authorities. 

Pre-determined fuel quantity is already calculated way ahead of any flight. In fact,airlines have to submit 6 months schedule ahead. 

The fundamental rule of commercial aircraft is to be safe. To make a system safe, we should be able to predict the system. To predict the system, we need to know the various parameters involved in it. Fuel is one of the parameter. 



To refuel in air means quantity of fuel is going to be unpredictable. And that's not safe. We can't allow that. FAA doesn't allow that. That's not how civil aviation works. 

Commercial flight doesn't tolerate unpredictability. Refueling in mid flight is just unpredictable.

Stay cool. 

CK


1 comment:

  1. If we can do that A320 can fly from Jeddah to JFK with multiple refuels on the way by tankers. Will that be economically feasible? will the aircraft be able to keep on flying that long without systems crashing?

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