This paper presents a method to estimate the position of receiver aircraft relative to the tanker aircraft in aerial refueling operation. In aerial refueling operations, the receiver aircraft is exposed to nonuniform wind field induced by tanker aircraft, and this nonuniform wind field leads to differences in readings of airdata sensors that are located different locations on the receiver aircraft. The goal is to use the variations of airspeed, sideslip angle and angle-of-attack measurements over the aircraft to develop a relative position estimation system. Using the difference in the sensors, a map of wind field in terms of magnitude and direction over an area around the refueling contact position is prepared. Several algorithms are developed that use measurements from three airdata sensors placed at different locations on the receiver aircraft and the inverse of the maps to estimate the relative position of the receiver with respect to the tanker.
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