Luftwaffe in-flight refueling technology

[Razorback]

The only reference I have found which discusses Luftwaffe in-flight refueling experiments is Manfred Greihl's LUFTWAFFE OVER AMERICA (Chapter 8). I have often wondered why they didn't just copy the British "looped hose" technology used to fefuel BOAC flying boats for trans-Atlantic flights before WWII. This was the first such system used by the U.S. Strategic Air Command after the war (PASSING GAS by Major Vernon B. Byrd). The German systems were very primitive ancestors of the current "flying boom" and "drogue and probe" systems, but were never implemented after testing.

[stellung]

How do you know this? Manfred Griehl shows several refueling schemes (pages 218 and 219). They are: fork-locking, tube-tow, refuelling by hose to a Gabelmast, and the hose-hawser procedure where "the tank hose was passed over by means of a wire."

[Razorback]

stallung,

You are correct in using the descriptive terms used for the German systems in Greihl's book, I interpreted the tube tow procedure as similar to the later flying boom. My "drogue and probe" interpretation came from the description on page 153 of DFS efforts to stabilize the fueling hose with a "slightly cone-shaped drouge" and the photos on page 281.