The X-47 landed on an aircraft carrier

The X-47 landed on an aircraft carrier

George H.W. Bush is conducting training operations in the Atlantic Ocean.U.S.-Navy-photo-by-MC3-Kevin-J.-Steinberg-Released

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George H.W. Bush is conducting training operations in the Atlantic Ocean.U.S.-Navy-photo-by-MC3-Kevin-J.-Steinberg-Released
George H.W. Bush is conducting training operations in the Atlantic Ocean.U.S.-Navy-photo-by-MC3-Kevin-J.-Steinberg-Released

The Northrop Grumman X-47B, an aircraft designed to prove that unmanned jets could operate from aircraft carriers, completed its primary mission Wednesday when it successfully landed on board a carrier at sea.

The X-47B, which had taken off from the Navy’s air test center at Patuxent River, Md., flew to USS George H. W. Bush  flanked by a pair of Super Hornet chase planes. After one programmed pass over the ship, the aircraft circled around in the traditional race track carrier approach pattern — although seemingly a bit wider than usual — then came straight in to catch the carrier’s No. 3 wire, just as it’s engineers had planned.

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According to Defense News other than the absence of a cockpit, pilots and aircrew, it all seemed rather routine, except for the engineering.

After landing, the aircraft was positioned on a catapult, launched and came around again to repeat the feat. It was a more extensive routine than when the little tailless plane — similar to a baby B-2 stealth bomber but about the size of an F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighter — was launched for the first time at sea on May 14.

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The second landing was also successful, if just a tad less optimal— catching the No. 2, or middle wire.

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Only two X-47B aircraft have been built, and there are no plans to acquire any more. The concept and engineering demonstrator program will likely finish its flight program and be closed down in a few months, as the Navy transitions to a new program to develop an operational unmanned carrier-based jet.

That program, the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike effort, is expected to lead an operational squadron by 2019.