This is Rough Translation from NPR.

I'm going to guess that not many of you have gotten to see up close a fighter jet refueling

in mid-air miles above the ground.

It's actually kind of an amazing process.

You'd be flying along and suddenly this tanker plane comes and matches your speed.

And then it's like two birds mating in mid-flight.

This thing called a drogue sticks out and attaches to the other plane that is flying at high

speed high altitude.

Like that little umbilical cord that's flapping around the wind.

A drogue shoot?

Drogue shoot, yep.

Is there any idea what that means?

It's like a little shoot.

Rodshaw has seen this firsthand.

He's an F-16 pilot.

Certain types of planes can only refuel from certain types of tankers, some refuel faster

and slower than others.

So there's a lot of complexity.

Plains actually refuel at different speeds.

At different altitudes they use different amounts of fuel.

So there's a lot of math.

Rodge did not think much about that math at the time.

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