The pole in question is a refueling probe that enables the helicopter to top off its fuel from a tanker without landing. Read more: 10 Of The Strangest Military Helicopters Ever Made.

During tests in 2013, the Calspan Learjet 25 fitted with a refueling probe and with X-47B's avionics, autonomously connected with a KC-707 tanker as if it were refueling operationally.

At the moment of probe contact with the drogue, the drag force on the drogue decreases due to loss of tension, resulting in erratic motion of the refueling hose. This may lead to critical damage to ...

DARPA), in a joint effort with NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, performed the first-ever autonomous probe-and-drogue airborne refueling operation on August 30, ...

According to Aviation Week, U.S. engineers will soon demonstrate the first in-flight docking of two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) while continuing the development of an autonomous aerial ...

The Navy wanted a better way to test fighter jets’ aerial refueling components, because old setups didn’t accurately simulate the impact between a jet’s probe and the refueling drogue. So ...

Booms can pump gas faster, at around 6,000 pounds per minute, while a probe and drogue pumps at less than half that rate. (The most common American tanker, the KC-135 , can hold up to 200,000 ...

The Global Hawks, huge drones with 131-foot wingspans used for high-altitude surveillance, flew in formation with less than 100 feet separating the refueling "probe" on one and refueling "receiver ...

F-35B tail number "BF-17" flew over Edwards AFB recently on a series of trials aimed at testing a new white refueling probe light. The dusk timing, desert locale and the F-35’s metallic skin ...

The Aerial Refueling Certification Agency, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has approved a redesigned refueling probe light on F-35 B and C models, a decision that will soon clear ...

The first U.S. military helicopter to participate in air-to-air refueling was the HH-3E, which underwent its first operational test in Southeast Asia with a modified C-130 Hercules in 1967.