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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.