On tankers, wake turbulence wasn’t only a refueling problem. We also took off in it.
Armed Conflict · · MITO
On tankers, wake turbulence wasn’t only a refueling problem. We also took off in it.
A MITO — minimum interval takeoff — was how an alert force got airborne for an Emergency War Order launch. Airlines wait a few minutes behind a heavy so the wake can sink and drift. We started our roll 12 seconds after the aircraft ahead. We practiced it often, so if the balloon went up we were ready.
A normal takeoff roll ran at least a minute, so in a three-ship cell there were usually three aircraft on the runway at once: one lifting off, one halfway down the roll, and one just starting.
Calm winds made it worse. A crosswind blows the wake off the runway. On a still day it sits there, and all you can do is fly through it and hope the pilot still has enough control to keep the wings level.
Weight made it worse again. The heavier the aircraft, the stronger the wake, and the lighter the aircraft, the quicker it climbs, so the heavies led and the lightest went last. Lighter aircraft also rotate earlier, which helps them miss the wake.
The KC-135A’s maximum takeoff weight was 297,000 pounds, and it was already marginal there. We rarely used it — that weight was hard on the airframe — but we came close, and a MITO made even those takeoffs more dangerous.
My first sortie in the KC-135A at Castle was a MITO with B-52s. I was too new to notice the danger. In the debrief our aircraft commander described holding the yoke full left while we were still rolling right at about 50 feet. He said it was the scariest thing he ever experienced in the -135.
I just sat there stunned. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.
If you’ve never seen one, this is a Global Shield launch out of Griffiss in 1985: nine B-52s and five KC-135s in under five minutes. The picture is what a 1985 tape looks like. The noise is right.
Source: @Campbell
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