I understand the general “how” aspect in that the planes use a special fuel line to get the fuel to the plane.
How can they do it safely with the engine on however? Thinking about refuelling a car you have to turn your engine off, when a plane/helicopter refuels mid flight they obviously have their engine on. Is there differences in how they get/store fuel that makes it safer or just differences in the type of engine?
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This is mostly my opinion and guesswork:
When refuelling your car there is almost no chance of a fire traveling back from the engine into the tank. The risk is rather with an errant spark igniting the fumes building up around the stations. Given the number of refuelling actions each adding a bit of gasoline fumes this builds up.
With a jet refuelling there’s less chance for that. The hose down to the jet is empty until it has contact with the port, and drains before disconnecting. And even if there were fumes to escape they are “blown away” by a 800km/h wind (cruising speed of a KC-135 Stratotanker).
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