Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1467328
Visiting Texas back in 2019 I have met fantastic former F/A-18 pilots who established Victory Aviation, flying the S-211 Marchetti jets. Back then they were explaining their plans and attitude towards aviation. However, I was not ex- pecting a surprise like the one they prepared - modifying an agricultural aircraft in a manner that would turn it into a tank- er, with external pods and being capable to carry out stan- dard AAR procedures (Air-to-Air Refuelling). WHY CIVIL AAR? AAR has turned out to be effective in military oper- ations, expanding the range and operational capabilities of the aircraft. In civil aviation - special operations, humanitarian relief flights, firefighting operations, medical support flights - solution as such has great potential. Nonetheless, so far it has not been available. And why is that? The main reason stems from the cost and availability of aircraft. Large AAR- capable airlifter costs from 30 to 100 million USD. The opera- tional and LCC costs also remain high. Furthermore, the stall speeds are usually high which makes the challenge for the pilots even tougher. Only the rich governments and wealthy air forces can afford this. Most of military helicopters and civil operators do not have a chance to make use of these capabilities. But what if a smaller, cheaper, and easy-to-fly platform is cus- tomized, to carry out this mission? This idea was presented to me by Chris Koelzer, the head pilot at Victory Aviation, and a former F/A-18 guy, who said the intention was to create a platform that would solve both civil, as well as military prob- lems. Koelzer claims that both the Air Force, as well as the www.fragoutmag.com