Taking to the skies
Page 10
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VOLVO has started to supply some F7 aircraft refuellers for . service at major airports in the UK including Glasgow, Gatwick, Luton and Heathrow.
Aviation Fuel Services a consortium formed by Mobil, Texaco and Total has just taken delivery of six F7 4x2 rigids which are rated at 56 tons gross when used as a drawbar combination or 28 tons solo.
Being used solely for airport duty, the vehicles are exempt from certain parts of Construction and Use Regulations eg, weights but they still have to comply with lighting and braking regulations.
Because the vehicles are limited to 32km/h (20mph) by means of a Fidus road speed governer, the braking efficiency of the standard F7 is in accordance with C and U requirements claims Volvo.
Although Volvo has extensive experience in the heavy haulage field and in Sweden at 52 tonnes gross this has been with F12 units in the main whereas to meet the height requirements for aircraft refuelling operation the F7 cab had to be rectified.
This limited the choice of power unit to the 1 6 2k (217bhp) TD 70F engine which has been matched to an Allison MT653 automatic transmission and an 8.6 to 1 hub reduction axle to achieve the required performance.
Although the main part of the operation is running at 20mph on the flat, the gradient of the Heathrow cargo tunnel has necessitated an ability to climb a 15 per cent slope at a minimum speed of 8km/h (5mph).
The Volvo chassis is common throughout the whole range of forward control vehicles using hot rolled chassis members with thick flanges which Volvo consider is more than adequate for the AFS operation.
The front suspension is the standard multi-leaf arrangement but the requirement for an 1.06m (3ft 6in) frame height necessitated a modified rear suspension with a helper.
The detail design of the Volvo aircraft refueller will be the subject of a future From the drawing board.