European Industry Studies Ways To Automate Hose-and-Drogue Refueling

air-to-air refueling from a hose-and-drogue system

Refueling from a hose-and-drogue system can be challenging in poor weather and turbulence. The technologies resulting from the EDA work could make it much easier.

Credit: Senior Aircraftman Tom Cann/Royal Air Force
The hose-and-drogue method of aerial refueling has mostly been unchanged since it was developed in the late 1940s. An invention of Alan Cobham’s Flight Refuelling Ltd., the system requires the receiver aircraft, equipped with a probe, to plug into a hose stabilized by a shuttlecock-like drogue. It...
Tony Osborne

Based in London, Tony covers European defense programs. Prior to joining Aviation Week in November 2012, Tony was at Shephard Media Group where he was deputy editor for Rotorhub and Defence Helicopter magazines.

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