Starting at the beginning, Tanner presents the origins of in-flight refueling and traces its 1923-1993 development from American barnstormer's stunt to widespread operational service. He presents a thorough account of how requirements came to be identified, and how through trial and error solutions were developed. His own employer, Sir Alan Cobham, was a pioneer in the field and, being a renowned long-dstance flyer, was one of the first in England to grasp the importance of in-flight refueling versus having to stage fuel supplies on land ahead of the trip. Over time, his firm would be instrumental in the invention of the probe and drogue system that, along with the boom system, became the prevailing technology. At this point an automobile connection begs to be made. When Cobham started experimenting in 1932 someone else had already taken similar initiative:
Mildred (aka Mrs. Victor) Bruce, the British racing motorist, speedboat racer, aviatrix and businesswoman. With only 40 hours of flying experience she decided in 1930 to best the world endurance record and had the foresight to buy herself a tanker plane from which to refuel her Bristol Fighter in flight.
Tanner covers the various methods of connecting tanker to reciever, types of modifications to either aircraft, and technical and safety issues.
Many photos and drawing illustrate procedures and lots of technical drawings and cutaways show operating principles and internal arrangements.
If the topic of aerial transfer interests you do know that there is also the relatively new field of mid-air rearming, presently stymied by financial and technological problems.

SpeedReaders

this is one of a very few books on this subject.It is an excellent book with a lot of detailed information,though the only drawback is it sometime reads like a technical manual.I hope the author writes an on further topics such as the Omega tanker project

Richard Cotton