Last year’s paper “An Emulation of a Flying Boom Operator Using a Rule-Based Expert System” (I/ITSEC 2021) presented an approach to enhance the realism of the flying boom movement of a constructive tanker during a Virtual Air Refueling (VAR) training. The main contribution of that study is to document the actions that a boom operator performs to control the flying boom attitude and extension prior to, during, and upon disconnect. Additionally, the actions of a boom operator were subsequently used to derive a rule-based expert algorithm and implement it into a simulation of a KC-135 constructive tanker.

Because the boom motion and orientation are known to change the trim of the tanker aircraft during contact, further enhancement to the boom simulation will be necessary to reproduce the dynamic interaction of the receiver aircraft, the refueling boom, and the tanker aircraft. For instance, the tanker wake and atmospheric turbulence can disturb the motion of the flying boom; therefore, additional controls of the flying boom attitude will be required to enhance the emulation of the boom operator. Another factor related to the boom movement is when the boom extends, the inertia property of the flying boom will change as well. Therefore, this factor will also affect the movement of the flying boom as the aerodynamic force and moment change.

This present paper reviews and models these dynamic effects on the boom operator actions. The emulation of the boom operator presented in last year’s paper was updated accordingly. The preliminary simulation results of this study demonstrated an enhancement of the realism of the flying boom movement, both visually and operationally, and consequently improved the simulation fidelity normally required for a Virtual Air Refueling training.  We will present the simulation results of the implementation and discuss the crucial lessons learned from this effort.

Keywords
FLIGHT TRAINING

Additional Keywords
Aerial Refueling, Boom Operator