Military Technology

This set of automatic aerial refueling technology is divided into aerial refueling technology and aerial refueling technology. In fact, these two sets of technologies do not bring much hardware improvements, mainly in terms of control systems.

Our current refueling technology, in addition to the hard-tube refueling technology that requires the cooperation of the tanker and the fighter aircraft receiving the oil, the hose refueling technology generally has a limited impact on the tanker, mainly on the fighter aircraft receiving the oil. It requires the pilot to be precise. Control to connect the oil receiving hose.

Due to the influence of speed, airflow, and flight attitude, this process of receiving oil is very difficult. Not all pilots are capable of this skill.

After hearing Wu Hao's words, everyone present nodded. Indeed, the current conventional refueling technology is hose refueling. Because the hose floats with the airflow, the pilot's technical requirements are very high when docking and refueling, so not all fighter pilots have this skill.

Taking stock of everyone's reactions, Wu Hao continued: "When we were developing this automatic aerial refueling technology, we divided it into two sub-projects for research.

One is the hard-tube refueling technology, which requires the cooperation of the tanker and the fuel-receiving fighter aircraft, which is very technically difficult.

The other is hose refueling technology, which does not have high requirements for tankers and is mainly used on aircraft receiving fuel.

In fact, this technology is very simple. We have added a set of automatic refueling procedures to the automatic control system of the fighter aircraft. By collecting and learning the data of all manned fighter aircraft when refueling and receiving, and conducting learning and training from it, we can Got this automatic refueling control system in the air.

Let me first introduce the hose refueling aspect. We install a small system on the tanker. When the tanker is approaching, this small system will automatically start and transmit the relevant flight data information of the tanker to the tanker.

At the same time, there is also a positioning device on the drogue at the top of the refueling hose, which will send its own spatial position coordinates to the refueling fighter at all times.

As for the refueling fighter, it will immediately switch to the automatic refueling process. At this time, both the pilot in the fighter cockpit and the operator behind the drone need to stop their actions.

Based on these data signals received, the refueling fighter will control the fighter to accurately dock with the refueling hose to achieve refueling.

During the entire refueling process, the tanker receives the relevant flight attitude data of the tanker at all times and controls the tanker to be consistent with it.

In this way, even if the tanker is affected by strong airflow and changes its flight attitude and speed, the tanker connected to the tanker that is being refueled will adjust accordingly to maintain normal refueling.

This is hose refueling, and in hard hose refueling, this technology is even more important.

As we all know, because it is hard-pipe refueling, the refueling and receiving aircraft must cooperate more closely. Therefore, this system can keep the two aircraft consistent during the hard-pipe refueling process.

Unlike hose refueling technology, hard tube refueling technology can actually be seen as the other way around.

Like the hose refueling technology, after the oil-receiving fighter enters the automatic refueling program, the oil-receiving fighter immediately begins to adjust its flight attitude based on the relevant data information of the tanker, and then gradually approaches the refueling hard pipe.

When the refueling fighter arrives in the relevant area, the automatic refueling system will control the refueling hard pipe to dock with the interface of the refueling fighter flying to the predetermined position, thereby achieving aerial refueling. "

After hearing Wu Hao's introduction, everyone couldn't help but start talking. There are those who support praise, and naturally there are those who are opposed to worry.

Those who support it certainly see the huge development potential of this technology, which will greatly promote the improvement of fighter aircraft's combat effectiveness.

Those who oppose the worry are worried that the refueling process is very dangerous, the two fighters are very close to each other, and the tanker is expensive and full of fuel. Once the calculation is miscalculated and a collision occurs, the loss will be huge.

Needless to say, there is nothing to say about fighter aircraft. It is just such an aerial tanker. It is expensive to build and rare in number. Even the rich and well-oiled Mi Air Force does not have many aircraft, let alone us. It can be said that it cannot afford to lose them at all.

Therefore, everyone has raised great doubts about the safety and reliability of this technology, and some people even questioned him directly.

Wu Hao was not anxious about this, but answered very calmly: "First of all, what I want to say is that our aerial automatic refueling and refueling technology is very safe and reliable. In this regard, pilots can never achieve it. .

Even the best pilots will make mistakes, but system programs will not. Even if it does happen, the probability is very low, much lower than that of a pilot.

Secondly, in terms of safety, we have designed a set of emergency response procedures, which will be automatically activated in crisis situations, such as active disengagement, active avoidance, weighing of ‘sacrifice’, etc.

When a very dangerous situation occurs, if it is a drone, this emergency response system will actively avoid it. If it cannot avoid it, then it will actively 'sacrifice' to ensure the safety of the tanker.

Of course, if it is a manned fighter plane, the pilot can take over control at any time during the entire process.

In fact, we were not the first to propose the concept of unmanned tankers. The US Army has long proposed relevant plans and has already conducted experiments.

Compared with their unmanned tanker solution, our aerial automatic refueling technology is more realistic, more in line with the current development needs of the Air Force, and is also safer and more reliable.

This aerial automatic refueling technology can be used not only on drones and unmanned tankers, but also on our current tankers and conventional fighters.

With this technology, the improvement in combat effectiveness of fighter aircraft will be huge. Not to mention other aspects, the efficiency of automatic refueling in the air cannot be achieved by manual refueling.

Moreover, this technology has also laid an important technical foundation for the development of unmanned tankers in the future. Can we even make unmanned improvements to existing aerial tankers to achieve unmanned long-term airborne services?

This is very important for carrying out some large-scale and high-intensity missions, which is equivalent to having an additional air logistics supply center. "

Hearing Wu Hao's words, many people present smiled and shook their heads. What Wu Hao said is too far away, and what they are looking for is the practical application of this aerial automatic refueling technology in the current and future stages.

Among them, what excites them the most is that this set of automatic aerial refueling technology can be installed and upgraded on active fighter aircraft. In this way, all fighters with the ability to receive refueling in the air can benefit from it.

And many times, it is not that there is a lack of equipment and technology in this area, but that there is a lack of talents with such skills. With this technology, the technical difficulty of pilot refueling and refueling training will be greatly alleviated, allowing more pilots and fighter jets to have the ability to refuel and receive in the air.