The invention will make it possible to increase the efficiency of the use of drones by increasing their stay in the air, the radius of combat use and the payload mass during takeoff, the Federal Institute of Industrial Property reported.
MOSCOW, August 9. /tass/. Specialists of the Military Training and Scientific Center of the Air Force "Air Force Academy named after Professor N. E. Zhukovsky and Yu. A. Gagarin" have developed and patented a system for refueling unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in flight, which will allow it to be produced at any time of the year and day in automatic mode. The relevant document was distributed by the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (available to TASS).
The invention will make it possible to increase the efficiency of the use of drones by increasing their stay in the air, the radius of combat use and the payload mass during takeoff. "The proposed system will allow the UAV to be refueled in flight at any time of the year and day in automatic mode, increase reliability and safety at the docking stage, and if it is used for manned aircraft, significantly reduce the psychophysical loads on the aircraft crew," the document says.
It is planned that the refueling will be carried out with the help of a tanker drone. The patented system for refueling an unmanned aerial vehicle with fuel in flight contains the equipment of a refueling drone and the equipment of a refueling UAV. "The equipment of a refueling UAV contains a refueling hose with a cone installed at one end, a refueling unit, a control unit, a cone position sensor and a docking sensor mounted on the cone of the refueling hose," the document says. - The equipment of the refueled UAV contains a refueling rod, a cone position determination unit, a mismatch parameter calculation unit, and a fuel level sensor."
According to the developers of the new system, the closest analogue of the invention, patented in the USA, has significant disadvantages. In particular, there are large psychophysical loads on the pilot of the tanker aircraft due to the lack of accurate coordinates about the mutual position of the cone and the rod. It also mentions the possibility of its use only at a short distance, which reduces the reliability and safety of refueling, and the impossibility of refueling in difficult weather conditions, especially at night.
The invention, patented in Russia, will improve safety and reliability at the stage of docking the cone of the tanker drone with the refueling rod of the refueled drone, regardless of the satellite navigation system.
The authors of the patent state that the proposed technical solution is practically applicable, since the standard means included in the avionics of aircraft can be used for its implementation.
