Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Fuel Savings Opportunities From Air Refueling, Murat Toydas

Theses and Dissertations

Fuel is a critical strategic asset for military aviation operations, yet is increasingly expensive. Air refueling offers both the opportunity to extend aircraft range and the potential to save fuel by enabling a transport aircraft to depart with less fuel in exchange for additional cargo. We evaluate the practicality of air refueling in terms of fuel savings versus distance and cargo quantity, by introducing two non-linear optimization models that examine the tradeoff between departure fuel weight and loaded cargo for given origin, destination, and tanker base positions and freight quantities to be moved. We use various numerical example scenarios to …