Hose-and-drogue in-flight refueling system
OwnerEric Enig, Julius Eniginventors
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Abstract
An in-flight hose-and-drogue refueling system composed of: a refueling hose-and-drogue unit extending from a refueling aircraft for engaging with a refueling probe of an aircraft to be refueled and; a drogue steering assembly for steering the drogue, the drogue steering assembly including a plurality of individually controllable, compressed air driven thrusters, and a compressed air supply line extending along the hose for supplying compressed air to the thrusters, wherein the hose and the supply line form a unit having a circular outline.
Claims4
A refueling probe installable in an aircraft for engaging a drogue to enable the aircraft to be refueled in flight, said probe comprising a light source and electrical wires or optical fibers for supplying lighting energy to said light source, wherein said probe comprises a tube having a wall and said electrical wires or optical fibers are embedded in said wall.
A refueling hose-and-drogue unit for airborne refueling of an aircraft, said unit comprising a hose, a drogue carried by, and rotatable relative to, said hose, and a plurality of thrusters attached to, and nonrotatable relative to, said hose, said thrusters being operable to control the position of said drogue in flight.
An in-flight hose-and-drogue refueling system comprising:
- a housing configured to be carried by an aircraft and including a cowl mounted to pivot downwardly from a closed position;
- and
- a refueling hose-and-drogue unit stored in said housing and deployable out of said housing when said cowl is pivoted downwardly,
- wherein said cowl is disposed below said unit when said cowl is in the closed position and said cowl is pivoted downwardly when a refueling operation is to be performed in order to provide aerodynamic stabilization during deployment of said unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.