Written question asked by Harry Cohen (Labour) on Thursday, 23 March 2000, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 6 April 2000. It was answered by Lord Moonie (Labour) on Thursday, 6 April 2000 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Ministry of Defence

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how long would it take for (i) an Antonov 124 and (ii) a Boeing C17 to carry an equal amount of supplies, based on the maximum that the lesser carrying aircraft can carry, to (a) East Timor and (b) Mozambique. - Inc figures.

Answer: Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how long would it take for (i) an Antonov 124 and (ii) a Boeing C-17 to carry an equal amount of supplies, based on the maximum that the lesser carrying aircraft can carry, to (a) East Timor and (b) Mozambique. [116501] Dr. Moonie: The estimated flight times to East Timor and Mozambique for the two types of aircraft would be similar, since both cruise at roughly the same airspeed. En-route, both aircraft would require refuelling stops of about two hours and one crew change. However, the C-17 is capable of being refuelled in the air and, therefore, apart from having to land for a crew change, it could avoid the intermediate refuelling stops. The flying time to East Timor is about 26 hours. Two stops would be required by the An-124 and four stops by the C-17. The total journey time would be 30 hours for the An-124 and 34 hours for the c-17 (or 28 hours with air to air refuelling for the C-17). The flying time to Mozambique is about 15 hours. The An-124 would require one stop and two for the C-17. The total journey time would be 17 hours for the An-124 and 19 hours for the C-17 (or 17 hours for the C-17 with air to air refuelling).

Secondary information