The Handley Page Harrow CK.MK.8 was one of the first RAF aerial tankers.
Hey great profile!!
You know air refuelling is one of those WWII things, which has always had me baffled. Air-refuelling had been tested and proven by the British pre-WWII, and was one of the most natural 'force multipliers', which the Allies could have applied during WWII, and yet they didn't
I know as you have pointed out 'that it required skill for the average pilot to master'. But I can not help think the lives it could have saved, had air-refuelling been able to top of bombers (allowing longer range and or extended radius of action - taking away predictable flight paths of Allied bomber, to which the Luftwaffe were able to station their fighter/interceptor airfields and patrol. It would have also allowed the critical fighter escorts to accompany the vulnerable bombers to many more targets, until the advent of the likes of the NAA P-51 Mustang)
Great work
VP Vieira P.S. Any chance of some profiles of the likes of Short Sterling, early B-17D/E/F and B-24D/E's being utilised as tankers, as newer and more powerful designs and variants entered front-line service - i.e. Halifax, Lancaster, B-17F/G's and B-24J's etc..........(in both RAF and USAAF colours and markings
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P.P.S. If you do not mind me saying, that had the Allies been so bold and foresighted to introduce airborne refuelling during WWII, I think they may have adapted an single hose approach initially (1-point refuelling) - the hose being located and deployed from the under rear fuselage, with the refuelling operator being located in the once rear turret. This arrangement would probably offer less prop-wash from the tanker, as well as the receiving aircraft's pilot to use the centre-line of the tankers fuselage as an important visual reference point
Keep up the fantastic imagination, foresight and great profiles
VP Vieira M.A.D