ARBOOM - Novel, Tactical-Sized Reconfigurable Aerial Refueling Boom

Current aerial refueling booms are designed to transfer fuel at high rates, and are sized to meet the needs of legacy bomber aircraft and heavy transports. Hose and drogue systems are often more flexible and are a better fit for tactical aircraft in terms of fuel flow rate. Fighters can take on fuel from a boom tanker at a reduced flow rate, but it doesn’t change the fact that current refueling booms are oversized for their use, and fighter aircraft (as opposed to other tanker/utility aircraft) are the ones with the greatest number of refueling operations. As unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) are used more, the demand for refueling of smaller, tactical vehicles will increase. According to the Air Force, a better match would be a new, smaller boom, appropriately sized for offloading fuel to fighters and UCAVs, which would also be easier to integrate onto tankers in a variety of locations (wing mounted, off centerline, on the ramp, etc.), require less powerful actuators to enable the full range of boom control, and impart lower reactive loads onto the tanker. As a result, there is a unique opportunity to develop a smaller boom for servicing tactical receivers.