U S Navy's X-47B First Carrier Takeoffs & Landings

Yesterday the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle was launched off the USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier off the coast of Virginia and announced publicly. It first landed on the carrier and was launched a second time. It made history by taking off from Patuxent River NAS and landing on the carrier, a first. Developed under a DARPA program by Northrop Grumman, the late Jack Northrop would be proud of this latest version of a flying wing, which he championed. First flight of the X-47B prototype was from Edwards Air Force Base, CA on 4 February 2011, incidentally my birthday.

The X-47B has a 62 foot wingspan with folding wing tips for aircraft carrier use like WWII Navy aircraft and has retractable tri-gear. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney F100-220U Turbofan it is capable of high subsonic Mach 0.9+ speeds with a 2,100+ mile range and 40,000 foot ceiling. Max takeoff weight is 44,567 pounds. This is one large drone!

The B version is unarmed but there are two weapon bays for up to 4,500 pounds of ordnance. No new weapons will be developed for its use in the follow-on UCLASS (Unmanned Carrier-Launched Surveillance and Strike System) design. The X-47B is a demonstration unmanned combat air vehicle developed from the X-47A Pegasus and will develop into the X-47C UCLASS.

More information on the UCLASS test program using the tailless retractable-tri-gear flying wing drone X-47B. The historic trap of an unmanned air vehicle on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, successfully hooked the No. 3 wire at a speed of approximately 145 knots bring it to a stop in less than 350 feet.

The test flight concluded a three stage, eight month test period at sea for the X-47B. Deployment is expected in active service in 2019.

Last week a US Navy X-47B Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle took off from the USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71 aircraft carrier and landed alongside an F-18 Hornet piloted jet on the carrier. This is the first time the X-47B drone jet has been guided and flown side by side with a piloted jet fighter. The Navy stated the remotely controlled UCAV continued to perform well in these aircraft carrier test ops.