TOPPING OFF THE TANK IN SPACE NASA FIGURING HOW TO REFUEL UNMANNED AIRCRAFT.

Byline: Daily News

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - NASA engineers are using two F/A-18 fighter jets to develop an automated in-flight refueling system for unmanned aircraft.

The automated aerial refueling project is documenting how a tanker's drogue basket - which contains the fuel nozzle - responds in the presence of the aircraft being refueled.

``This marks the beginning of a new chapter for UAVs as we start the process of making automated aerial refueling a reality,'' said Gerard Schkolnik, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center AAR project manager.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are drawing increasing interest from the American military. The computer-controlled Global Hawk and the smaller Predator, controlled by operators on the ground, have both seen service over Afghanistan, primarily as reconnaissance craft.

Other UAVs are under development that can take off from ships or attack enemy missile sites or other targets. Predators have fired missiles at vehicles in Afghanistan and Yemen, and also have been tested with anti- aircraft missiles.

Refueling the unmanned aircraft in flight would enable them to circle longer above their targets, fly longer distances or carry more gear.

The F/A-18A tanker is undergoing flight tests with an aerodynamic pod containing air-refueling equipment fitted in the 1990s to a newer F/A-18E/F jet.

The recent flights are to demonstrate how the hose and drogue operate on the older jet. A second F/A-18 is acting as the aircraft being refueled.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Naval Air Systems Command, the Naval Air Force-Pacific Fleet, the Canadian Air Force and aerospace companies Boeing and Northrop Grumman are cooperating in the project.

``I am very proud of the team's accomplishments,'' Schkolnik said. ``(We flew the) first flight 10 weeks after project start, and the first operational in-flight aerial refueling from an F/A-18A tanker.''

The automated aerial refueling project builds on a formation-flying experiment at NASA Dryden in 2000 and 2001. Flight research demonstrated 14 percent better fuel economy for an F/A-18 flying in a precise spot behind another aircraft, NASA said.

Many resources and personnel from the formation experiment are involved in the refueling project, allowing the refueling research effort to progress quickly, officials said.