I, Robot Pump Jockey
Airbus and the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) jointly undertook and successfully completed an automatic air-to-air refueling (A3R) flight-test campaign utilizing the Consortium’s A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) and Boeing’s F-15 fighter. The tests were conducted ahead of the former aircraft’s planned 2024 certification. Over three weeks in August, an A330 MRTT made upwards of five-hundred automated wet and dry contacts with the RSAF’s full fleet of receiver aircraft, including the F-15SG, a variant of Boeing’s F-15E Strike Eagle air-to-ground fighter jet.