Northrop Grumman has announced that it has successfully completed the first flight of the X-47B flight as part of the unmanned combat air system carrier demonstration (UCAS-D) on Nov 22 at Edwards Air Force Base.
The availability of two X-47B unmanned aircraft enables the UCAS-D program to conduct a faster and more productive flight test program.
The aircraft, which is also known as Air Vehicle 2 flew for 30 mins at an altitude of 5,000 ft. With this testing of the X-47B aircraft, it will be transitioned to Naval Air Station Patuxent River to carry out shore based carrier suitability testing.
According to Carl Johnson, who is the UCAS-D programme manager of Northrop Grumman the availability of two aircrafts will enable the company to collect more data and meet the requirements of demonstrations. While one aircraft will be transitioned to Pax River the other will be used to test expansion flights at Edwards Air Force Base. The Pax River testing is scheduled to happen in the beginning of 2012 and will test the ability of the aircraft to approach the carrier with precision, in order to make arrested landings. Precision navigation computers and the software used for control aboard the X-47B aircraft will also be tested.
In 2007, the US Navy awarded the UCAS-D prime contract to Northrop Grumman under which the company was to develop and test flight two X-47B flights that are the size of fighter jets. The UCAS-D programme is scheduled to test and demonstrate the unmanned and tailless aircraft by 2014.