Why don’t the Air Force and Navy use the same refueling methods? Well, history and functionality play a significant role here. Aerial refueling began in the 1920s with folks dangling hoses between biplanes, and by 1923, they were already breaking endurance records with mid-air fueling hijinks.
Fast forward a century, and now we’ve got the Air Force using the “flying boom” system, which is a rigid tube great for guzzling down fuel at 6,000 lbs per minute — perfect for their massive bombers like the B-52 that need a small ocean of fuel.
Meanwhile, the Navy sticks with the hose-and-drogue method. Their nimble fighters like the F-18 don’t need as much fuel and can only handle around 1,000 to 3,000 lbs per minute anyway. Plus, smaller fighters don’t create the same kind of turbulent “bow wave” that would render the hose-in-basket method utterly useless for larger aircraft.
So, different mission specs mean different refueling needs.
