UAS VISION
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The US Navy’s carrier-based unmanned aircraft demonstrator is undergoing preparations for automated aerial refuelling testing next year, including a possible flight demonstration using the aircraft itself, said officials from the service and X-47B manufacturer Northrop Grumman.
In May, Eric Maglio traveled to a conference in Florida, showed some Northrop Grumman executives clips of the miniature X-47B unmanned aircraft he’d just built, and was offered a job on the spot.
Northrop Grumman is pitching the unmanned combat air vehicle technology derived from its US Navy-sponsored X-47B demonstrator to the UK, to feed into its Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme.
The Navy’s unmanned carrier jet programme wrapped up a week of testing aboard the carrier Theodore Roosevelt on Aug. 24, flying the X-47B in a pattern with manned aircraft and testing the system’s ability to operate aboard an underway flat top.
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., San Diego, California, is being awarded a $63,070,969 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Phase II continuation of post-demonstration activities in support of the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System programme.
Rockwell Collins is a member of the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) team, which received the 2013 Robert J. Collier Trophy at a ceremony last week. The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) presented aviation’s highest honor to the team, which is comprised of leaders in government, business and industry.
The X-47B unmanned combat air system is gearing up for shore-based flight test activities in preparation for the next round of sea trials this summer. The program’s test team will conduct various test events with the X-47B over the next few months in an effort to mature air traffic control and ground support standard operating procedures […]
The unmanned X-47B conducts its first night flight April 10 over Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. Night flights are the next incremental step in developing the operations concept for more routine UAS flight activity.