Airplane Geeks listener Micah asked why the Navy went with probe-n-drogue for air-to-air refueling instead of the flying boom system used by the Air Force. Grant thinks it may have been due to the size of the aircraft and the “cost” of squeezing a dedicated tanker into an aircraft carrier’s available space (probe-n-drogue lets aircraft refuel each other via “buddy pods” and so on).
Regardless of the How’s & Why’s, Steve & Grant interviewed a KC-135 boomer at the recent Avalon Airshow and noticed that there was a rather large drogue unit on board in an otherwise very empty cabin. They asked him how a flying boom tanker made use of it and then recorded his answer.
PS: We also have bloopers for this episode which you can listen to via the player below: