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US navy completes first UAV carrier based landing

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ABOARD THE USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH (AP) — The Navy successfully landed a drone the size of a fighter jet aboard an aircraft carrier for the first time Wednesday, showcasing the military's capability to have a computer program perform one of the most difficult tasks that a pilot is asked to do.

The landing of the X-47B experimental aircraft means the Navy can move forward with its plans to develop another unmanned aircraft that will join the fleet alongside traditional airplanes to provide around-the-clock surveillance while also possessing a strike capability. It also would pave the way for the U.S. to launch unmanned aircraft without the need to obtain permission from other countries to use their bases.

"It is not often that you get a chance to see the future, but that's what we got to do today. This is an amazing day for aviation in general and for naval aviation in particular," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said after watching the landing.

The X-47B experimental aircraft took off from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland before approaching the USS George H.W. Bush, which was operating about 70 miles off the coast of Virginia. The tail-less drone landed by deploying a hook that caught a wire aboard the ship and brought it to a quick stop, just like normal fighter jets do. The maneuver is known as an arrested landing and had previously only been done by the drone on land at Patuxent River. Landing on a ship that is constantly moving while navigating through turbulent air behind the aircraft carrier is seen as a more difficult maneuver, even on a clear day with low winds like Wednesday.

Rear Adm. Mat Winter, the Navy's program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons, said everything about the flight — including where on the flight deck the plane would first touch and how many feet its hook would bounce — appeared to go exactly as planned.

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A X47-B Navy drone touches down as it lands aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bus …
"This is a historic day. This is a banner day. This is a red-flag letter day," Winter said. "You can call it what you want, but the fact of the matter is that you just observed history — history that your great-grandchildren, my great grandchildren, everybody's great grandchildren are going to be reading in our history books."

Less than an hour after that first landing, the jet took off from the carrier and then landed again. On its third and last-planned landing attempt, the Navy said, the jet self-detected a navigation computer anomaly. Instead of landing on the carrier, it flew to Wallops Island Air Field on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The Navy says the plane landed safely there.

The Navy will do some additional tests and analysis on the jet, and possibly some more landings in the next few days if the carrier's schedule allows for it, but the first landing was the last major benchmark for the program to hit.

The X-47B will never be put into operational use, but it will help Navy officials develop future carrier-based drones. Those drones could begin operating by 2020, according to Winter. Four companies are expected to compete for a contract to design the future unmanned aircraft, which will be awarded in fiscal year 2014.

The two experimental aircraft that have been built for the first round of testing will be retired and placed in museums at Patuxent River and at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.

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FILE - A Navy X-47B drone is launched off the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush …
The move to expand the capabilities of the nation's drones comes amid growing criticism of America's use of Predators and Reapers to gather intelligence and carry out lethal missile attacks against terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

Critics in the U.S. and abroad have charged that drone strikes cause widespread civilian deaths and are conducted with inadequate oversight. Still, defense analysts say drones are the future of warfare.

The X-47B is far bigger than the Predator, has three times the range and can be programmed to carry out missions with no human intervention, the Navy said.

While the X-47B isn't a stealth aircraft, it was designed with the low profile of one. That will help in the development of future stealth drones, which would be valuable as the military changes its focus from the Middle East to the Pacific, where a number of countries' air defenses are a lot stronger than Afghanistan's.

The X-47B has a wingspan of about 62 feet and weighs 14,000 pounds, versus nearly 49 feet and about 1,100 pounds for the Predator.

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A X47-B Navy drone is launched off the deck of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush of …
While Predators are typically piloted via remote control by someone in the U.S., the X-47B relies only on computer programs to tell it where to fly unless a human operator needs to step in. The Navy says the aircraft relies on precision GPS navigation, a high-integrity network connection and advanced flight control software to guide itself.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert called the first landing a "miraculous technological feat."

Developed by Northrop Grumman under a 2007 contract at a cost of $1.4 billion, the X-47B is capable of carrying weapons and is designed to be the forerunner for a drone program that will provide around-the-clock intelligence, surveillance and targeting, according to the Navy, which has been giving updates on the project over the past few years.

The X-47B can reach an altitude of more than 40,000 feet and has a range of more than 2,100 nautical miles, versus 675 for the Predator. The Navy plans to show the drone can be refueled in flight, which would give it even greater range.


"It gives us persistence. It gives us the ability to do things that we can't today because of the limitations on the human body in terms of endurance, in terms of distance, in terms of just how long you can stay on station or do the things like refueling," Mabus said. "We're not sending this message to any particular country. This is for us. This is to make sure that we keep the technological edge."

Navy completes 1st unmanned carrier landing

Lets see the Chinese pull something of like this :azn:
 
hahaha, they have to copy our technology. pathetic. Americans never copy, we design new technology and lead the way...
 
I've got no doubt they're looking for that new software that makes this possible, right now.

Of course the Chinese always manage to find a way to steal others technology make simple modifications and give it a Chinese name even the Russians were getting irked at them for that since they copied their Sukhoi fighters lets not forget about when that F117 nighthawk went down in Serbia the Chinese sent their "red squad" to bribe the local country folk for parts of that wreckage if that new J-20 or whatever its called technology stems from our 1970's stealth technology then the Chinese are not as technological as they perceive themselves to be.
 
hahaha, they have to copy our technology. pathetic. Americans never copy, we design new technology and lead the way...

Yes, US is leading the way, technology, education, and even business principles(internal controls, certified financial analyst etc.)

But you should know that at the beginning of your birth, you know nothing, you imitate adult's words, learn to eat with spoon&knives and try to stand up, walk and run. So copy is not an appropriate word.

China lag behind the world for some reason. China have to accpet some of the rules you established, but when she became strong enough, she will make the rules that others have to obey.
 
So you guys didn't copied German missile technology?

AFAIK, they initially used German technical knowledge, while stile keeping their own design. China is copying both. And within a couple of decades the Americans pretty much left German technology behind, and implanted and developed their own technology, which has been vastly superior to other.
 
AFAIK, they initially used German technical knowledge, while stile keeping their own design. China is copying both. And within a couple of decades the Americans pretty much left German technology behind, and implanted and developed their own technology, which has been vastly superior to other.

I agree with you. I just gave an example because he claimed that American never copy which is impossible for any country of the world to claim.
 
I agree with you. I just gave an example because he claimed that American never copy which is impossible for any country of the world to claim.

Newton was right when he stated that:

''If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.''

That counts for all of us.
 
So you guys didn't copied German missile technology?

Robert H. Goddard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket,[1][2] which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926. Goddard and his team launched 34 rockets[3] between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 2.6 km (1.6 mi) and speeds as high as 885 km/h (550 mph).[3]

Goddard's work as both theorist and engineer anticipated many of the developments that were to make spaceflight possible.[4] Two inventions of Goddard's 214 patented — a multi-stage rocket (1914), and a liquid-fuel rocket (1914) — were important milestones toward spaceflight.[5] His 1919 monograph A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes is considered one of the classic texts of 20th-century rocket science.[6][7] Goddard successfully applied three-axis control, gyroscopes and steerable thrust to rockets, to effectively control their flight.

Although his work in the field was revolutionary, Goddard received little public support for his research. Press sometimes ridiculed his theories of spaceflight. As a result, he became protective of his privacy and his work. Years after his death, at the dawn of the Space Age, he came to be recognized as one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry.[8][9][10] He was the first not only to recognize the scientific potential of missiles and space travel but also to bring about the design and construction of the rockets needed to implement those ideas.

At the time, Germany was highly interested in American physicist Robert H. Goddard's research. Before 1939, German scientists occasionally contacted Goddard directly with technical questions.[11] Von Braun used Goddard's plans from various journals and incorporated them into the building of the Aggregat (A) series of rockets.[11]



That being said they also copied submarine technology from us as well.
 
"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."

X-47B successfully lands on aircraft carrier | Navy Times | navytimes.com
 
I agree with you. I just gave an example because he claimed that American never copy which is impossible for any country of the world to claim.

When it comes to military tech, the US military-buliding machine is stunning. It overshadows nearly world tech combined.
 

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