AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 282 / 285

Plate 282 of 285 · Modern age · Air-to-air refuelling tanker and transport

Airbus Voyager

Voyager (A330-243 MRTT), ZZ338, painted as ZZ338, an Airbus Voyager (A330-243 MRTT) of the Royal Air Force, the ninth of the fourteen flown by Nos. 10 and 101 Squadrons from RAF Brize Norton as tankers and long-range transports: a twin-engined airliner with a low swept wing and upswept winglets, two Rolls-Royce Trent 772B turbofans in long nacelles on pylons under the wing, a Cobham hose-and-drogue refuelling pod under each outer wing, a swept fin of the later, shorter pattern and a low-set tailplane, cameras under the tail cone for the refuelling operator, and blade aerials along the crown: RAF grey overall with a thin dark cheatline that steps down behind the forward door, grey ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’ titles over the forward cabin windows, a small two-line ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’ beside the flight deck, a low-visibility red and blue roundel and three placards behind the forward door, doors outlined in yellow, ‘ZZ338’ ahead of the rearmost door on both sides and under the port wing, and a small red and blue fin flash, as photographed at the Royal International Air Tattoo in July 2019 (shape from Airbus’s own airport-planning drawings of the A330-200, with the fin cut to the shorter post-modification height that photographs of ZZ338 show; the pods’ size and position come from photographs; sources differ on whether ZZ338 is a KC2 or a KC3, and no centreline hose unit shows in its photographs, so none is modelled; the small stencils are left off).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as ZZ338, an Airbus Voyager (A330-243 MRTT) of the Royal Air Force, the ninth of the fourteen flown by Nos. 10 and 101 Squadrons from RAF Brize Norton as tankers and long-range transports: a twin-engined airliner with a low swept wing and upswept winglets, two Rolls-Royce Trent 772B turbofans in long nacelles on pylons under the wing, a Cobham hose-and-drogue refuelling pod under each outer wing, a swept fin of the later, shorter pattern and a low-set tailplane, cameras under the tail cone for the refuelling operator, and blade aerials along the crown: RAF grey overall with a thin dark cheatline that steps down behind the forward door, grey ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’ titles over the forward cabin windows, a small two-line ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’ beside the flight deck, a low-visibility red and blue roundel and three placards behind the forward door, doors outlined in yellow, ‘ZZ338’ ahead of the rearmost door on both sides and under the port wing, and a small red and blue fin flash, as photographed at the Royal International Air Tattoo in July 2019 (shape from Airbus’s own airport-planning drawings of the A330-200, with the fin cut to the shorter post-modification height that photographs of ZZ338 show; the pods’ size and position come from photographs; sources differ on whether ZZ338 is a KC2 or a KC3, and no centreline hose unit shows in its photographs, so none is modelled; the small stencils are left off). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.5 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (A330 MRTT · Voyager KC2 & KC3); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Voyager (A330-243 MRTT), ZZ338 modelled here.

History

The Voyager

By the end of the 1990s the RAF’s air-to-air refuelling tankers were converted airliners of the 1960s and 1970s, VC10s and TriStars, which were growing old and expensive to keep flying. Rather than buy new tankers outright, the government chose to rent the capability under a private finance deal, the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft programme. In March 2008, after years of negotiation, the Ministry of Defence signed a 27-year contract worth about £10.5 billion with AirTanker, a consortium of EADS, Rolls-Royce, Cobham, Thales and VT Group (later part of Babcock), which would buy, own and maintain fourteen aircraft and supply them, with some of their crews, to the RAF.

The aircraft chosen was the Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport, an A330-200 airliner converted by Airbus Military at Getafe, near Madrid. The conversion adds refuelling equipment, military communications and a station on the flight deck for the mission systems operator, but leaves the airliner’s cabin, so that one aircraft can carry fuel, freight and up to 291 passengers at once. The fuel it passes to other aircraft comes from its own wing tanks, with no extra tanks in the hold. The first A330 MRTT flew on 15 June 2007, and Australia took the first into service as the KC-30A in 2011.

The first RAF Voyager reached RAF Brize Norton in December 2011 and began flying troops in April 2012; refuelling clearance followed in 2013, and the VC10 and TriStar were retired by March 2014. Nos. 10 and 101 Squadrons fly the fleet. Voyagers come in two versions: the KC2, with a hose-and-drogue pod under each wing for fast jets, and the KC3, with a third, centreline hose under the rear fuselage for large aircraft. Nine aircraft form the RAF’s core fleet; the other five can be leased to airlines when the RAF does not need them. Voyagers have refuelled RAF and allied aircraft over Iraq and Syria, fly the air bridge to the Falkland Islands and helped to evacuate Kabul in August 2021, and one, ZZ336, carries the Prime Minister and the Royal Family.

This airframe

Voyager ZZ338

ZZ338The airframe modelled

ZZ338 was delivered in 2014 as the ninth Voyager, completing the RAF’s core fleet, and flies from RAF Brize Norton with Nos. 10 and 101 Squadrons. No Voyager is in a museum, and ZZ338 was chosen because it is well photographed from both sides, above all at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in July 2019. The model shows it as those photographs do: RAF grey overall with a thin dark cheatline that steps down behind the forward door, grey ‘ROYAL AIR FORCE’ titles over the forward cabin windows, a low-visibility red and blue roundel behind the forward door, the doors outlined in yellow, ‘ZZ338’ ahead of the rearmost door and under the port wing, and a small red and blue fin flash. Its shape comes from Airbus’s own airport-planning drawings of the A330-200, with the fin cut to the shorter pattern of later aircraft, which photographs of ZZ338 show. Sources differ on whether ZZ338 is a KC2 or a KC3; no centreline hose unit shows in its photographs, so the model has the two wing pods only, their size and position taken from photographs. The small stencils are left off.

Where to see one

Not on charge

The RAF’s fourteen Voyagers fly with Nos. 10 and 101 Squadrons from RAF Brize Norton and none is in a museum. The VC10 tankers it replaced are preserved.

All 285 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.