This drone will refuel Naval fighter jets by 2024

The MQ-25A Stingray will take off and land from aircraft carriers and is critical to the Navy's future vision.

((In the present, the Stingray has to prove that it can do three difficult tasks well, and do them repeatedly. Every aircraft carrier is a small runway, and launching from that short runway is often aided by a catapult, which hurls the plane into the sky with extra momentum. Landing on a carrier is harder, as the runway isn’t just small—it is also moving on water.

Human pilots train for this in simulators and then repeatedly while underway, mastering day landings and then moving on to night approaches. The Stingray will have to do it all autonomously, with algorithms and sensors supplanting human experience and knowledge.))

This oughta be interesting...

https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/mq-25-stingray-set-to-launch-2024/

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The MQ-25 originally started out as something different, and then morphed into a tanker to free up more F/A-18s.

 

How'd you like to be the Captain of the carrier on which the first landing will be attempted??

Cross you fingers and clear the deck...

 

Really seems totally doable to me......empty on return, thousands of VR TO & landing ops practiced in prep.....what could go wrong?

 

Already been done several times. Good thing about the MQ-25 trapping is that she does not care whether it is daytime or nighttime. Real pilots do.

 

It seems like the only thing the F-18 doesn’t do nowadays is COD... but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until they put some really big cargo pods on one.

 

Reminds me of a guy who converted a Hornet model into an F/A/R/C/E-18!

 

There was an F/A18-D (RC) model that was reconnaissance capable (RC) with a center recce pod. There were also EW versions called Growlers, the EA-18G, carrying on the tradition of the F-105G and the F-4G.

 

So these have already successfully completed carrier trials?

Like the man said: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

Incredible.

 

The production version has not completed carrier trials, but the test bird has successfully flown off a carrier. When originally conceived, they were not sure what they were going to do with the design.

 

Hmm. Taking off from a carrier is much easier than landing on one, yes?

I mean, you're basically flung into flight.

I hope landing one of these guys on a carrier isn't incredibly difficult, but I'm also ready for a few foul-ups along the way. Look at Space X and the rocket landings, and that's on a stable barge.

 

With automatic flight controls, not a big deal to land one. Just get her on glide course and hold until touchdown. We auto-landed the X-40 in August 1998, so the technology has been around for a long time. STS had an auto-land capability as do most late modern airliners.

 

Carrier landings can/have been highly automated (“magic carpet” system) and the newer F-18 variants can more or less fly themselves through it. There may be some added challenge with a fully automated aircraft but the precedent has been pretty well set even with a person sitting along for the ride.

I’m pretty sure that Vincent Aiello has talked about it in some detail on his Fighter Pilot Podcast but I dunno which episode whether it was those on Carrier Ops/landings or the F-18. They have had some pretty interesting guests (apart from just me) that cover some stuff like how MAGTFs work and more recently Law of Armed Conflict from an aviaton perspective.