>>549223
How would they retrieve the fighters after deploying them for maintenance/rearming?
Very close to the tips of the wings of aircrafts strong turbulence develops. This happens because of the high pressure below the wings pushes past the wings near the edge to fill the space above the wings. This turbulence can get extremely big and means that planes that fly behind it must keep a certain distance to be able to fly safely. This is a major concern for airports (greater turbulence->longer wait times between landing planes->less money made), but also for air to air refueling, because the refueling beam must be lowered mechanically to ensure that the fighter doesn't get thrown around too much by turbulence.
Flying a fighter (a tiny one at that) so close to the plane to actually be able to reel it in would invariably mean flying it into the turbulence. The old TB-3 didn't have that problem, since it wasn't nearly as large (->not nearly as heavy->required less lift->less pressure difference between the wings->less turbulence).
The only real option would be a downward cargo door, but where do you put the landing gear then?
Adding a hole that large to the fuselage would also create a massive problem. Look at the 747 SOFIA telescope project. It's basically a 747 with a large cut and a telescope put inside. What I am about to say sounds crazy, but the SOFIA 747 weighs more than a normal 747, even without the telescope. Why? Cutting a hole that large into the side of the plane means that all of the forces that would usually be routed through that part of the fuselage will now have to be routed through the other parts of it, which means that you must reinforce it. A plane without cargo doors weighs much less than a plane with cargo doors, and adding a large cargo port at the bottom of the plane (one of the two planes where the most forces are applied during takeoff and landing) will be pretty complicated.
As soon as the fighter goes inside the airframe it will not produce lift and fall out again. The fighter would also have to shut down it's engine or burn the insides of the aircraft, so you would need a solid system that can hook into the fighter, allow the fighter to shut down it's engines, and then pull it in. "Landing" would take as long as it takes for the fighter pilot to dock (seeing how new pilots have trouble with refuiling already this may be a problem), plus the times it takes to wind down the engine, plus the time it takes to pull in the craft and stow it away. A single landing could take five to ten minutes. If you want to land five a flight of 6 fighters that would be 30 minutes of extra flight time on the last fighter. Now imagine if something went wrong and landing was delayed further.
The fighters would need extra fuel reserves for cases like that, and since they have severe size constrains already, that would mean that you can't fly too far away or you will burn too much fuel and have non as emergency backup.
Don't get me wrong, the idea is very /k/, and which kid hasn't fantasized about shit like this already, but there are some engineering problems that need to be solved.