Prototype could be available within 18 months if launch customer comes on board
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has completed preliminary design work on an autonomous aerial refuelling system for unmanned air vehicles, and is now looking for a launch customer for the technology.
"We have the sensors and other technologies and components needed for such a capability. If we have a client, we can prepare a prototype in approximately 18 months," says Moshe Scharf, director of marketing and business development at IAI's Bedek group.
Demand for in-flight refuelling will be driven by the growing use of UAVs, says Scharf, who believes that the new capability will be needed "sooner or later".
Boeing and the US Air Force Research Laboratory demonstrated in August that a UAV could autonomously hold position behind a tanker, with flights of a KC-135 and a Calspan-operated Learjet equipped to fly as an unmanned aircraft. Also in August, NASA demonstrated the first "hands-off" autonomous aerial refuelling engagement with an Omega-operated Boeing 707 tanker and a Boeing F/A-18 acting as a surrogate UAV.
IAI will not link its capability to a specific platform, but sources say that the new generation of large UAVs will represent the right category, once an operational requirement emerges.
IAI is developing large UAVs and recently began flight testing its Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop-powered Heron TP. With a maximum take-off weight of 4t, the Heron TP is 13m (42ft) long, has a 26m wingspan and a fuselage volume suitable for carrying large payloads.
Designed for autonomous take-off and landing, the Heron TP will be used to perform some of the long-range missions now conducted by manned Israeli air force aircraft. It will be the largest UAV in the air force inventory, and is expected to deliver an endurance of more than 70h without refuelling.
Meanwhile, Boeing's Phantom Works plans to continue tests of its autonomous aerial refuelling system through next year to prepare the technology for transition to the USAF. In August 2007, the team plans to demonstrate autonomous manoeuvring around the tanker, with the Learjet engaging the control system and being directed to the contact position by a ground station on approval from the tanker.
Source: Flight International
