Patent ID: 7506840

Claim:
A connecting device for the refueling, in flight, of a refueled aircraft from a tanker airplane provided with a refueling device, said connecting device being able to be carried by said refueled aircraft and comprising: a fixed connecting boom, being able to be fixed as a protrusion to the nose of said refueled aircraft, said connecting boom being hollow and able to cooperate with said refueling device of said tanker airplane; and a support structure, able to be fixed to the fuselage structure of said refueled aircraft and serving as a rigid base fixed to said connecting boom, said support structure being provided with an internal passage in communication with said connecting boom, wherein said support structure comprises, a tubular cylindrical body, of which the longitudinal axis may be disposed parallel to the fuselage structure of said refueled aircraft, said tubular cylindrical body comprising said internal passage; at least two parallel bearings, fittingly surrounding said tubular cylindrical body respectively in the front part and in the rear part of the latter, said bearings being able to be fixed to said structure of the fuselage structure, and able to take up the radial loads applied to said tubular cylindrical body and engendered and transmitted by said connecting boom; and an element for longitudinal locking of said tubular cylindrical body along its longitudinal axis, able to associate said tubular cylindrical body with said structure of the fuselage structure and able to take up the axial loads applied to said tubular cylindrical body and engendered and transmitted by said connecting boom.