August 21, 2007:
The U.S.
Department of Defense successfully completed developing and testing flight
control software for UAVs, that enables these unmanned aircraft to safely and
effectively refuel in flight. The autonomous refueling systems uses GPS and
inertial guidance systems, plus a video recognition system that handled the
final approach in an impressive fashion. The Department of Defense is
developing large UAVs designed to stay in the air for days at a time. Also, any
UAV large enough to refuel in the air (Predator size and up would be stable
enough in the air for this), would benefit from taking off with a larger
payload (sensors or communications transponder), and staying in the air via
in-flight refueling.