Any thoughts Tonks?

[AndyG]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/15 ... bot_darpa/

[Chris Trott]

I think the idea is to do the harder of the two (at least technically) first and then back-adapt it to boom. It's a lot easier to boom-tank than drogue-tank, so if they can get the computer to hook up to a moving drogue with a little probe, then it's a cinch to get it to fly in close formation with another airplane. Now the trick will be replacing the human boom operator to be able to plug into the boom receptacle of the autonomously piloted aircraft.