Drone re-fueling

The wonderful world of drones moves on another step. Remote air to air refueling of manned aircraft.

US Navy makes history as unmanned tanker refuels manned jet in the air

The Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet connected to the Boeing-owned MQ-25 Stingray drone mid-air and transfered 325 pounds of fuel to the fighter jet.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Yes it's the septics but still.

 

[Cornish_Pikey]

More jobs for the aviator types lost. The quality of the report however is shocking. The author teaches journalism at Brunel University. Now we know part of the reason that journalism is so pants these days. Might want to get a proof reader in.

The two aircrafts came as close as 20 feet to each other during the in-air refueling . Hopefully they touched as fuel would go everywhere otherwise.

And "Aircrafts" lol.

 

[Oldstacker]

I suppose what comes next is the use of a drone to refuel another drone,.....

I could see value in drone tankers where long range offensive missions are required, or where a drone could be discarded and putting a big manned tanker into unfriendly, contested, airspace might be undesirable but where tankers can operate in relatively benign airspace i would have thought big airframes were more cost effective

 

[Spearmint]

I suppose what comes next is the use of a drone to refuel another drone,.....

I could see value in drone tankers where long range offensive missions are required, or where a drone could be discarded and putting a big manned tanker into unfriendly, contested, airspace might be undesirable but where tankers can operate in relatively benign airspace i would have thought big airframes were more cost effective

Or maybe something like in one of the scenes from the film 'Stealth'....