Guidance Concept for a Receiver Aircraft to Perform Autonomous Aerial Refueling

An adaptive trajectory concept that exploits the capabilities of a fixed-gain set 6-DOF autopilot was developed for autonomous aerial refueling. The concept was based on differential position error feedback that was used to control overshoot and tracking speed about the tanker refueling point. To demonstrate this concept, an automatic aerial refueling flight system simulation for a conventional receiving aircraft was developed. The performance of the system was then evaluated for a selected differential position, flight condition, and atmospheric disturbance.