METHOD FOR MANAGING IN-FLIGHT REFUELLING OF A FLEET OF AIRCRAFT

摘要

In-flight refuelling of a fleet (1) of aircraft by a refuelling aircraft (2) through a refuelling boom requires that a queue is formed and that the number, one or possibly two, of passages for each aircraft at the refuelling boom is determined, thereby constituting a refuelling sequence. If the order of the queue is easy to establish, since it often corresponds to a classification in descending order of importance of the requests for fuel, the same is not true concerning the number of passages at the refuelling boom which has to be reduced to a minimum while observing the fuel states of the aircraft to be refuelled before starting their own refuelling. The inventive method, which can be implemented by a calculator, enables to computerize the search for a refuelling sequence fulfilling the requirements of the fuel state of various aircraft being refuelled while reducing to a minimum the number of passages of the aircraft at the refuelling boom.