Testing autonomous software for AARD program using a NASA F/A-18 #845 following a chartered Sabreliner.

Testing autonomous software for AARD program using a NASA F/A-18 #845 following a chartered Sabreliner.

F/A-18 #845 behind an Omega Air Boeing 707 tanker during an Autonomous Airborne Refueling Demonstration (AARD) flight.

F/A-18 #845 testing autonomous system for AARD project by following a pickup with an airborne tanker drogue illustration.

Testing autonomous software for AARD program using a NASA F/A-18 #845 following a chartered Sabreliner.

F/A-18 #845 behind an Omega Air Boeing 707 tanker during an Autonomous Airborne Refueling Demonstration (AARD) flight.

F/A-18 #845 HUD and video camera setup for Autonomous Airborne Refueling Demonstration (AARD) project

View from F/A-18 #845 behind Omega Air Boeing 707 tanker during an AARD flight showing probe and drogue.

Pilot Dick Ewers and flight test engineer Leslie Molzahn were hands-off as NASA F/A-18 #845 flew itself into the drogue on an autonomous refueling demonstration.

NASA's two Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft form the backdrop as pilot Dick Ewers banks NASA F/A-18 #845 low over Rogers Dry Lake to end a research flight.

Smoke generators show the twisting paths of wingtip vortices behind two NASA Dryden F/A-18's used in the Autonomous Formation Flight (AFF) program during flight #743.

These two NASA F/A-18 aircraft are flying a test point for the Autonomous Formation Flight project over California's Mojave Desert.

Flying an Autonomous Formation Flight mission, two F/A-18s from the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, gain altitude near Rogers Dry Lake.

Two NASA Dryden F/A-18's land on the Edwards Air Force Base runway after completion of an Autonomous Formation Flight (AFF) mission.

Smoke generators show the twisting paths of wingtip vortices behind two NASA Dryden F/A-18's used in the Autonomous Formation Flight (AFF) program during flight #743.

Smoke generators show the twisting paths of wingtip vortices behind two NASA Dryden F/A-18's used in the Autonomous Formation Flight (AFF) program during flight #743.

Smoke generators show the twisting paths of wingtip vortices behind two NASA Dryden F/A-18's used in the Autonomous Formation Flight (AFF) program during flight #743.

This unique view, looking directly up at two NASA Dryden F/A-18's used in the Autonomous Formation Flight (AFF) program, was captured by Carla Thomas from another F-18 flying safety/chase.

NASA's F/A-18B #845 was captured by the photographer as it returned from its final flight in the Autonomous Airborne Refueling Demonstration research project.