Which Two Airplanes Completed The First Ever Aerial Refueling?

The Wright Brothers weren’t the only contributors to the age of airplanes, and they may not even have been the first into the air on December 17, 1903, as they are often credited. Whether it was German immigrant Gustave Whitehead (in August 1901) or Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont (years later on October 23, 1906), they all played a significant role in making powered flight a reality.

How far a plane can travel and how long it can stay in the air has always been restricted by how much fuel it can hold. One might think that the daunting task of transferring fuel from one plane to another while in flight might be a relatively recent achievement only accomplished by high-tech aircraft, but that would be a fallacy. In fact, the first air-to-air refueling took place between a pair of De Havilland DH-4B propeller-driven biplanes on June 27, 1923, more than a century ago and only a mere two decades (give or take) after man first took to the skies, and is considered one of the top ten moments in aviation history that changed flight forever.

What precipitated the creation of this refueling protocol came about thanks to humanity’s persistence in doing things that have never been done — and setting records. On October 5, 1922, Lieutenants John A. Macready and Oakley G. Kelly flew a Fokker T-2 over San Diego, California, for 35 hours, 18 minutes, and 30 seconds, setting a then unprecedented endurance record. It would have lasted much longer if the plane hadn’t run low on fuel.

The De Havilland DH-4 biplane refueled history

The British-designed De Havilland DH-4 biplane was the only aircraft used during World War I by the U.S. Army Air Service for daytime bombing, observation, and artillery spotting. Interestingly, it was built by the Aeroplane Division of General Motors (one of many things GM built for the U.S. military), the Dayton-Wright Company, and the Standard Aircraft Corporation. By the time it was retired in 1932, more than 60 variations existed. Although reliable, it had a fuel system problem that earned it the nickname “The Flaming Coffin.” So, it’s rather ironic this particular plane was used to perform such a hazardous task.

After Lts. Macready and Kelly set the record, the crew at San Diego’s Rockwell Field immediately set about creating a system to solve the problem. On June 27, 1923, Lts. Virgil Hine and Frank W. Seifert completed the first successful aircraft-to-aircraft in-flight refueling when they transferred gasoline via gravity feed (meaning, without a pump) through a fifty-foot hose connected to the bottom of their DH-4B that stretched to a DH-4B flown beneath them by Lts. Lowell H. Smith and John P. Richter.

Smith and Richter tried breaking Macready and Kelly’s record the very next day, but a gas valve malfunctioned, forcing Smith to land the plane prematurely. In August 1923, they flew 37 hours and 15 minutes on their way to setting 16 new world records for distance, speed, and duration. In October, they flew 1,250 miles nonstop from Canada’s border to Mexico’s, refueling midair three times and finally proving the system was a reliable option to extend an aircraft’s flight range.