Airmen from the 366th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base have found a way to shave time off during the hot-pit refueling on F-35s using a Type 1 hydrant system from the 1950s and hose cart from the 1970s.
Senior Airman Michael Rogers, 388th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron avionics techinician, and Senior Airman Christian Cook, 366th Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels operator, performs a hotpits refueling with a hose cart from the 1970s on an F-35 Lightning II from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, June 20, 2019, at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. A hot-pit allows aircraft to refuel without turning the engine off and quickly return to the air. The traditional refueling process can take more than an hour before the aircraft can take off, while a hot-pit takes 13 minutes. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Andrew Kobialka)
The previous method requires eight R-11 refueling trucks to hot-pit refuel the F-35s. One R-11 can serve fuel to two F-35s before the maintainers have to switch to another truck for fuel.
With the hydrant system and hose cart, the airmen are directly connected to 500,000 gallon tanks for a larger pool of fuel for refueling.
