It's long been routine for heavy bombers and other military aircraft, and researchers are now looking at the possibility of in-flight refueling for passenger liners. Pluses cited are the ability to cover greater distances without having to haul huge loads of fuel; less need for extending runways, because lighter planes can use shorter runways; and leveraging the last fact to make it possible for long-haul flights to use airports now too small for them.
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This ARTICLE in online magazine The Conversation has a lot more details; it's written by a mechanical engineering professor at Queen's University, Belfast and cites work done by, among others, the German Aerospace Center and the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory. Some of the work has been large-scale on simulators with actual pilots.
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