Successful unscheduled aerial docking! (1940)

[DDE]

Everybody bails out, but pilot of the upper Anson realizes the whole “composite” has thrust (from the lower plane) and control authority (from the upper plane), so he proceeds to make several passes before belly-landing both aircraft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_Brocklesby_mid-air_collision

[kerbiloid]

1930s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zveno_project

Spoiler

Alas, in KSP they don't dock in midair.

 

 

Edited January 31, 2019 by kerbiloid

[StrandedonEarth]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

1930s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zveno_project

  Reveal hidden contents

Alas, in KSP they don't dock in midair.

 

 

Wow, I had never heard of that before. They must have secretly hired kerbals in their design agencies, which could explain the N-1’s problems

[MaverickSawyer]

Pfft. Parasite aircraft date back to WWI. The Brits were the first to experiment with (and successfully perform a launch of) parasite fighters, but the best example is probably the US Navy's flying aircraft carriers Macon and Akron, which fielded a complement of five Curtis F9C Sparrowhawk scout-fighters.

That said, there is work being done by DARPA for in-flight deployment and retrieval of small drones.

[magnemoe]

27 minutes ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Pfft. Parasite aircraft date back to WWI. The Brits were the first to experiment with (and successfully perform a launch of) parasite fighters, but the best example is probably the US Navy's flying aircraft carriers Macon and Akron, which fielded a complement of five Curtis F9C Sparrowhawk scout-fighters.

That said, there is work being done by DARPA for in-flight deployment and retrieval of small drones.

Most parasite plane systems did not dock, it was an first stage who let you not only save fuel getting up in attitude and underway but also let you overload the plane as it did not have to take off. 
Downside was obviously complexity. Instead of just landing refueling and reloading you had to match the plane with the carrier with an crane or similar. 

Docking makes more sense if you use an airship as an aircraft carrier who has planes for increase recon radius and possible to hunt submarines.
Same with small drones with limited endurance even if you might just make them disposable, not sure how economic in this works. 

[MaverickSawyer]

Just now, magnemoe said:

Same with small drones with limited endurance even if you might just make them disposable, not sure how economic in this works. 

I can't recall exactly what the intended missions are, but the premise was that, even though they are considered expendable, it's still cheaper to recover and reuse them  a few times than to throw them away each time.

[magnemoe]

12 minutes ago, MaverickSawyer said:

I can't recall exactly what the intended missions are, but the premise was that, even though they are considered expendable, it's still cheaper to recover and reuse them  a few times than to throw them away each time.

Yes, it makes sense in some settings there you can not use ground bases but want an low level constant surveillance, perhaps have some weapon on them to. 
Syria operations against isil is the oblivious scenario and as this would be an kit for an transport plane its just another system like the one there you could grab an person from an airplane.

 

[tater]

I can't find an image of it (I have it in a book), but 2 aircraft over the UK in WW2 collided, and landed. One was a bomber (B-24?), and the other was a P-38 (in my memory, gotta find the pic). The collided with the 38 in a steep bank, and stuck together, then the bomber landed.

[StrandedonEarth]

3 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Pfft. Parasite aircraft date back to WWI

Well ya, I knew about the dirigible-based craft, but I hadn’t heard about the Russian Zveno project. That’s much more Kerbal