Warplanes: Aerial Refuelings of UAVs

Archives

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.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close