Midair plane refuels done by a drone for the first time(cbsnews.com)
cbsnews.com
Midair plane refuels done by a drone for the first time
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drone-refuels-us-navy-fighter-jet-midair/
16 comments
If you're interested, or are like me and just love visualizations of massive military ops, check out this from The Operations Room. Gets at the scale of Operation Black Buck and the massive complexity and coordination of getting those aircraft to their destination (and back).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5yAtuYPHK4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5yAtuYPHK4
Wow! Thanks for sharing
That whole channel is amazing. Check out the Desert Storm series if you need to burn an hour or two on the weekend refreshing yourself on the history of modern warfare.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxRgfBXn6Mg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxRgfBXn6Mg
It's my understanding that for B2 missions the SOP is to fly from their base in the midwest US, get refueled several times on the way, perhaps drop some precision guided bombs on something on the other side of the planet, and fly home. There's a crew rest bunk where one of the two pilots can sleep on the way, in rotating shifts.
"Here’s how B-2 bomber pilots pull off grueling 33-hour flights": https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/04/29/heres-how-b-2-bom...
Reading the article it seems the pilot's personal 33-hour record was actually in a B-52. Here's an article that says the longest combat mission for a B-2 was over 44 hours: https://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/the-stealth-bo...
Reading the article it seems the pilot's personal 33-hour record was actually in a B-52. Here's an article that says the longest combat mission for a B-2 was over 44 hours: https://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/the-stealth-bo...
[deleted]
US air forces seems genuinely and deeply challenged by the vast distances of the Pacific, aggravated by the long ranges of Chinese missiles. Many (most?) current American workhorse aircraft were not designed for such distances. This robo-refueling method could really be a game-changer (and sorry for the tired cliché). Not to mention, it can help with the perennial shortage of tanker aircraft. Now if they could do the same for all aspects of theater logistics. Robo-resupply everywhere.
This is why the US navy is the 2nd largest airforce in the world, and why the US has airbases pretty much in every zip code.
[deleted]
Just for clarity because the title is a bit muddy:
This is the first time an unmanned drone has refueled a manned aircraft.
Specifically, a prototype of the Navy's future unmanned carrier based tanker drone transferred a small amount of fuel to a 2 seat F-18 super hornet. They used a 'probe and drogue' or 'basket' style refueling where the receiving jet initiates contact.
The Navy demonstrated the reverse capability...unmanned drone receiving fuel from a manned tanker aircraft...in 2015.
more details and history: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40955/the-navys-tanker...
This is the first time an unmanned drone has refueled a manned aircraft.
Specifically, a prototype of the Navy's future unmanned carrier based tanker drone transferred a small amount of fuel to a 2 seat F-18 super hornet. They used a 'probe and drogue' or 'basket' style refueling where the receiving jet initiates contact.
The Navy demonstrated the reverse capability...unmanned drone receiving fuel from a manned tanker aircraft...in 2015.
more details and history: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40955/the-navys-tanker...
Prior to that, in 2012, DARPA’s Autonomous High-Altitude Refueling program demonstrated fully autonomous aerial refueling of unmanned air vehicles at high altitude. This culminated with two modified RQ-4 Global Hawkdrones flying in close formation to test probe-and-drogue contacts, as seen in this video:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40955/the-navys-tanker...
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40955/the-navys-tanker...
This refers, I think, to a drone being refueled by a manned aircraft. The roles have now reversed.
fascinating, wonder how much thrust needs to be adjusted because of the lowering weight. Would make a fun calculus problem for hight school students.
Actual Navy press release: https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/26477...
Impressive. But a lot of my fascination was crushed by how that site aggressively destroyed my back button, lol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck#/media/Fi...