Refuelling the TSR2

[Spellbinder99]

I was happy to see that Damian's excellent book is now available as a Kindle download from Amazon, so I bought it straight away.

Flicking through it showed the depth of research he has done, but also raised the odd question so I thought I would ask here.

I have been an aircraft maintainer for over 30 years and that time has included 7 years on Jaguars in Oman where the refuelling port is inside the right-hand airbrake well, thus requiring the airbrakes to be open to refuel the aircraft. Similarly, the undercarriage doors are opened via a switch on the ground to allow various systems like the battery to be accessed on the ground. I noticed the TSR2 refuelling port is inside the nose wheel well at the back, and as the sequence on these doors is to close after undercarriage extension they obviously must be actuated open to refuel by use of the manual switch in the well. It appears there are also braces to hold them open while personnel are in the wheel well, a thoughtful safety feature!

My question is does that switch open all the doors, main and nose like the Jag or does access to the main wheel wells require using a separate switch in those wells? The modelling implication of this is that if they are separate it would be valid to show the aircraft with all the main doors closed up and just the nose wheel well doors open as if about to be refuelled.

Cheers

Tony

[jetman]

Hi Tony
I am new to this forum I have the answer to you question also I have photos of the nose wheel doors but as I am new too this site  I can not yet  upload any photos  so I will try to explain
The two nose undercarriage wheel doors are connected to two hyd rams one left one right,
as you mentioned the refuelling connector is located at the rear of the nose wheel well  to gain accesses the doors  are opened by hand.
To open the doors there are two  long pip pins one L one R  6in approx. situated at the front end of the door which can reached  very easily that runs through the bottom end of each Hyd ram pulling the pins out  disconnects the rams from the doors and the doors can be swung open there is no mechanism to keep the doors locked in the open position so if some was to activate the undercarriage (unlikely on the ground ) that resolves any risk of the doors closing and giving some one a bad hair day.as soon as I get permission toad photos I will let you know       

[NARSES2]

Jetman

This should help you in posting pictures on site. They need to be held on an online photo holding site and linked to that. I use Photobucket but others are available

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,32096.0.html

[Devilfish]

A similar system is used on the E-3D nose doors.  They are disconnected when open and flap in the breeze.