Patent ID: 8074931

Claim:
An in-flight refueling system comprising: a fuel supply included with a refueling aircraft; a hose drum unit included with the refueling aircraft and being in fluid communication with the fuel supply, the hose drum unit being configured to dispense a hose; a drogue disposed upon an end of the hose, the drogue being configured to draw the hose out of the refueling aircraft and provide flight stability to the hose in response to being introduced to an air stream, the drogue having a storage conformation and a deployed conformation; and a deploying/retrieval device comprising: a non-rotatable arm having a proximate end and a distal end; a ring secured to the distal end, the ring being configured to releasably secure the drogue and having a wire pitch disposed upon a trailing edge of the ring, the wire pitch being configured to collapse the drogue into a stowed state for drawing the drogue into the refueling aircraft; and an actuator secured to the proximate end, the actuator being configured to non-rotatably extend the arm and the drogue in a direction along an axis of the arm through an air boundary layer during deployment.