See heavy transport helicopters carrying both cars and aerial refueling

The refueling in the air was inherently not easy, and in the case of a heavy transport helicopter under construction, it would be even more complicated.

In fact, aerial refueling technology has been used since the 1950s of the last century. It helps the aviation industry to overcome its limits, move vehicles further and significantly improve the power of the air force, helping to expand the range of direct combat. Therefore, aerial refueling has become an extremely important application in aviation and air force technology in many countries.

Aerial refueling has become an extremely important application in aviation technology.

However, aerial refueling technology for helicopters is still very rare. Only a small number of US Air Force helicopters are currently equipped with aerial refueling equipment.

In principle, we can summarize briefly as follows:

The forward Hercules transport plane will drop the refueling pipe out. The tip of the nozzle has a funnel-shaped tube and has an automatic opening and closing valve system. The next pilot will control the helicopter to bring the 2-meter-long nozzle into the top of the funnel. At that time, the computer will calculate a reasonable time to open and close the refuel valve. During that time, two planes must always fly at the same speed and keep a safe distance.

Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter refueled in the air, below the Hummer weighing 2 tons.

It sounds simple, but in fact the air refueling is very difficult, and with the moon plane, the risk of insecurity is even higher. Not to mention the probability of collisions between the two planes, only the pump nozzle is very vulnerable to the helicopter rotor rotating at high speed.

In the video below we will see the level of complexity pushed to the top when under the US Marines' Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter, which still hung a heavy Hummer no less than 2. In addition, there is an inevitable swaying situation for flying vehicles when encountering clouds.

So when you look at the screen, everything is easy and beautiful, while the pilot's back may be sweaty.