Navy Plans to Launch Carrier UAV Next Tuesday | USNI News
Northrop Grummans X-47B is loaded Monday onboard the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) for a planned May, 14 2013 catapult launch. US Navy Photo
Next week the Navy will launch its experimental fixed winged unmanned aerial vehicle on its first flight from an aircraft carrier, Naval Air System Command officials told USNI News on Tuesday.
Northrop Grummans X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Aircraft Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) is planned to be launched from the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) on May, 14, several sources told USNI News.
NAVAIR would not confirm an exact date for the launch.
The X-47B will do at least one launch using the ships steam powered catapult and preform so-called touch and goes onboard the deck of the Bush, according to NAVAIR. The X-47B was loaded onboard Bush Monday at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.
The plane however will not conduct an arrested landing onboard the aircraft carrier.
On May, 4, an X-47B made its first arrested landing at a terrestrial Navy test facility at Patuxent River, Md.
Landing an unmanned aircraft on an aircraft carrier will be the greatest singular accomplishment for the UCAS demonstration and will serve as the culmination of over a decade of Navy unmanned carrier integration work, said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, Navy UCAS program manager in a Monday statement from NAVAIR.
Northrop Grummans X-47B is loaded Monday onboard the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) for a planned May, 14 2013 catapult launch. US Navy Photo
Next week the Navy will launch its experimental fixed winged unmanned aerial vehicle on its first flight from an aircraft carrier, Naval Air System Command officials told USNI News on Tuesday.
Northrop Grummans X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Aircraft Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) is planned to be launched from the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) on May, 14, several sources told USNI News.
NAVAIR would not confirm an exact date for the launch.
The X-47B will do at least one launch using the ships steam powered catapult and preform so-called touch and goes onboard the deck of the Bush, according to NAVAIR. The X-47B was loaded onboard Bush Monday at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.
The plane however will not conduct an arrested landing onboard the aircraft carrier.
On May, 4, an X-47B made its first arrested landing at a terrestrial Navy test facility at Patuxent River, Md.
Landing an unmanned aircraft on an aircraft carrier will be the greatest singular accomplishment for the UCAS demonstration and will serve as the culmination of over a decade of Navy unmanned carrier integration work, said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, Navy UCAS program manager in a Monday statement from NAVAIR.
