The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in a demonstration with NASA has performed the first-ever hands-off probe and drogue air refueling mission, employing a NASA F/A-18 operating as an unmanned test bed. According to a DARPA release, the Autonomous Airborne Refueling Demonstration used GPS navigation and an optical tracker to precisely position the refueling probe into the basket lowered from an aerial refueling aircraft. Air Force Lt. Col. Jim McCormick, DARPA program manager, said using the probe and drogue method provided “the most challenging [situation] for autonomous systems.” The capability “applies equally to the boom and receptacle method used by most Air Force aircraft,” he added. The flight was the seventh in a planned series of eight, but was the first one to demonstrate a hands-off approach. (How, or if, this gels with last year’s effort by the Air Force Test Pilot School is unclear.)
Planning an Air Show Is Hard. At Andrews, It’s Even Harder
Sept. 17, 2025
Joint Base Andrews opened its flightline this month to thousands of civilians, exposing a normally restricted airbase that regularly hosts the president and foreign dignitaries to a curious public eager to see current and historic military aircraft up close and in action.
