{"id":10620,"date":"2021-06-08T23:24:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T04:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=10620"},"modified":"2021-06-08T23:28:23","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T04:28:23","slug":"navy-and-boeing-complete-first-unmanned-aircraft-to-aircraft-refueling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=10620","title":{"rendered":"Navy and Boeing Complete First Unmanned Aircraft to Aircraft Refueling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PRNewswire\/ —\u00a0For the first time in history, the U.S. Navy and Boeing [NYSE: BA<\/a>] have demonstrated air-to-air refueling using an unmanned aircraft \u2013 the Boeing-owned MQ-25\u2122\u00a0T1 test asset \u2013 to refuel another aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a test flight\u00a0on June 4, MQ-25 T1 successfully extended the hose and drogue from its U.S. Navy-issued aerial refueling store (ARS) and safely transferred jet fuel to a U.S. Navy F\/A-18 Super Hornet, demonstrating the MQ-25 Stingray’s ability to carry out its primary aerial refueling mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the initial part of the flight, the F\/A-18 test pilot flew in close formation behind MQ-25 to ensure performance and stability prior to refueling \u2013 a maneuver that required as little as 20 feet of separation between the MQ-25 T1 air vehicle and the F\/A-18 refueling probe. Both aircraft were flying at operationally relevant speeds and altitudes. With the evaluation safely completed, the MQ-25 drogue was extended, and the F\/A-18 pilot moved in to “plug” with the unmanned aircraft and receive the scheduled fuel offload.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The milestone comes after 25 T1 flights, testing both aircraft and ARS aerodynamics across the flight envelope, as well as extensive simulations of aerial refueling using MQ-25 digital models. MQ-25 T1 will continue flight testing prior to being shipped to Norfolk, Virginia, for deck handling trials aboard a U.S. Navy carrier later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Boeing-owned T1 test asset is a predecessor to the seven test aircraft Boeing is manufacturing under a 2018 contract award. The MQ-25 will assume the tanking role currently performed by F\/A-18s, allowing for better use of the combat strike fighters and helping extend the range of the carrier air wing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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https:\/\/sqps.onstreamsecure.com\/origin\/multivu_archive\/MNR\/Boeing_MQ25_FA18_6_4_21_MEDIA_3.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRNewswire\/ — For the first time in history, the U.S. Navy and Boeing [NYSE: BA] have demonstrated air-to-air refueling using an unmanned aircraft \u2013 the Boeing-owned MQ-25\u2122 T1 test asset \u2013 to refuel another aircraft.<\/p>\n

During a test flight on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10172,4510,4813,89,5804,799,5637,13618,8222,1836,5174,5992,5670,2203,4957,5676,13831,10674,5446,10169,10176,1397,10195],"tags":[1518,1052,539,464,14435,5434,160,3963,41,1925,4512,430,1268,14434,3074,1503,2514,1671,1757,3301,2366,361,10262,589,1248,1067,889,938,6981,1981,412,904,1401,2452,13286,1968,2998,937,14436,101,530,1817,1646,1691,631,1271,705,850,1849,2684],"class_list":["post-10620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace","category-aerospace-news","category-airplane-news","category-aviation-news","category-avionics","category-boeing-news","category-business-news","category-communications-news","category-consumer-news","category-defense-news","category-drone-news","category-economic-news","category-economy-news","category-finance-news","category-global-politics","category-international-news","category-manufacturing-assembly-news","category-military","category-military-news","category-news","category-stock-news-2","category-stock-news","category-transport","tag-1518","tag-aerial","tag-air","tag-aircraft","tag-ars","tag-asset","tag-aviation","tag-award","tag-boeing","tag-carrier","tag-communications","tag-contract","tag-defense","tag-drogue","tag-extended","tag-f-a-18","tag-financial","tag-first","tag-fuel","tag-future","tag-history","tag-hornet","tag-hose","tag-jet","tag-manufacturing","tag-media","tag-military","tag-mission","tag-mq-25","tag-navy","tag-news","tag-norfolk","tag-nyse","tag-prnewswire","tag-refuel","tag-refueling","tag-security","tag-space","tag-stingray","tag-stock","tag-strike","tag-super","tag-test","tag-transport","tag-u-s","tag-unmanned","tag-video","tag-virginia","tag-weapons","tag-wing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10620"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10623,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620\/revisions\/10623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}