![]() Aerial Refueling Today Today’s aerial refuelingįrom such beginnings, aerial refueling has become the main enabling factor of military airpower. In addition to hit targets anywhere in the world, another key feature of air-to-air refueling is that fighter-bombers can take off with heavier loads and far less fuel. This tanking process has helped fighter jets to carry more of ammunition whereas cargo aircraft can lift off with extra extremely heavy loads and refuel while en-route. Today’s military air forces are very much dependent on aerial refueling, yet commercial aviation never would utilize tanking techniques. While a regular pickup truck on the road carries 30 gallons (113 liters) of fuel, an American F-16 carries 880 gallons (3331 liters) of fuel, i.e., equivalent to 30 pickup trucks. An F-22 has a capacity of carrying 2,600 gallons (9842 liters) of fuel. The industry follows two aerial refueling systems- 1) Probe & Drogue 2) Boom refueling. These systems are operated by a refueling operator sitting in the tanker aircraft, who manages the connection of the probe & drogue or boom refueling with the receiver aircraft. Probe and Drogue– In 1939, FRL’s looped hose provided a workable aerial refueling system for large, multiengine airplanes however, its adaptation to bomber planes in which there was no crew to connect the hose was impossible. ![]() Brainstorming onto the idea of doing something woth the hose, FRL soon coined what we today call probe & drogue system. In this system, initially, a small plane was equipped with a probe that could be attached to a drogue at the end of a refueling tube trailing behind a tanker. ![]() At the end of the hose, there is a funnel-shaped drogue, a basket that looks like an oversized shuttlecock. The drogue balances the trailing hose and provides a lead into the connector. ![]() The pilot guides the probe into the drogue to make the connection. In April 1949, the first test was carried out using four B-29s and a pair of F-84s.īy using probe & drogue aerial refueling system, a tanker aircraft pumps up to 1500-2000 lb (220-290 gallons) of fuel per minute.
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