[USNBandit]

I had a statics professor at Annapolis that who had three pricipals of statics. The sum of the forces equals zero, the sum of the moments equals zero, and you can't push on a rope.

Pushing fuel up a hose seems a lot like pushing on a rope.

[jz638]

If it were truly simpler to equip aircraft with the “drogue” and tankers with the “probe”, don’t you think someone would have done it by now with manned aircraft? This reeks of a sneaky CYA or budgetary effort instead of a sound engineering decision.

[saganite]

It is possible to “reverse refuel” on KC-135’s, although the quantities delivered are small and it takes a little longer. This is hardly a new concept.