Tanker aircraft VC10 and Victor K2. Royal Air Force tankers refuelling Vulcan Bombers and Tornados in aviation art prints of VC10s and Victor K2 by Keith Woodcock and Michael Rondot. Available from the aviationprints.co.uk, a subsidiary of Cranston Fine Arts.

Atlantic Trail by Michael Rondot Ever wondered what it is like learning to tank? Imagine a fragile basket flailing six feet up and down at the end of a 50 foot hose as the tanker flexes its wings in turbulence. In your cockpit it feels like the throttles are connected to the engines with knicker elastic. To keep straight in the tanker's wingtip vortices you have applied right spoiler and a bootfull of rudder, whilst your death grip on the stick is inducing a violent porpoising motion. Over the radio a calm voice from the tanker clears you in, so with one engine in afterburner and with eyes like saucers you move forward to attempt a controlled mid-air collision. Welcome to the air-to-air refuelling club. In Michael Rondot's remarkably accurate portrayal of refuelling operations high over an Atlantic panorama, a Tornado moving forward to refuel makes contact with the basket trailed by a VC10 tanker. In these last critical moments the Tornado's probe can either move snugly into the centre of the basket and plug in, or rip through the spokes, sending a shower of debris into the engine intake. It is all a matter of skill, judgement, age and luck.

VC10 Ascension Island 1985 by Brian Mulholland.