| At the time of this icident fuel coming in thru the inflight
refueling Probe went into the wing integral tank and was
then transferred to the main fuselage Tank by
an engine bleed air transfer pump. An electrical boost pump fed the
engine from the fuselage only. Since he had a pilot-sized hole in the wing,
when he plugged into the tanker, the fuel coming in thru the probe
went right on out into the slipstream. So the A-3 tanker was functioning
mainly as a tow truck. The A-3 brought him by the ship and he didnt
unplug till more than half through the 180 turn.They told him he needed to
catch the wire on the first pass or else. Soon after this incident, Douglas provided a
conversion kit which allowed the pilot to select routing of fuel coming
in thru the probe...he could then choose to route it directly into the
fuselage tank rather than have it go into the wing integral tank and, in his case,
be lost overboard. The conversion was really very
simple...remove a plate from the tee fitting and attach a pipe. The picture was taken on the starboard side
of the ship in Hangar Bay One on CVA(N)-65 by the photographer standing
on the Port wing panel, aiming over the fuselage. The pilot was standing on a Coca-Cola crate. How do I know this? I was Walter Kronkite
that day, I was "...there" | 