By Skies Magazine | August 19, 2014 Estimated reading time 1 minute, 51 seconds.
Northrop Grumman has conducted a sequence of test flights from the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) involving an X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) and an F/A-18 Hornet. The X-47B project started under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Joint-UCAS program (unmanned combat air system) and is now part of the U.S. Navy’s UCAS Demonstration (UCAS-D) program.
Representatives from Northrop Grumman and the Navy carried out the trials – which represent the first time manned and unmanned carrier aircraft have operated in the same controlled landing pattern – in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Other industry partners in the tests include Eaton, General Electric, GKN Aerospace, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Moog, Parker Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, Rockwell Collins, Sargent Aerospace & Defense, UTC Aerospace Systems and Wind River.
The X-47B flew a landing pattern with the Hornet at speeds up to 120 miles per hour (193 km/h) at an altitude of 12,000 feet. Operators on CVN71 controlled the X-47B during a series of precision approaches to the carrier. Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy plan to use the results to develop safer operations between carrier-based manned and unmanned aircraft.
Watch a video of the flights here.
Read more here.
