Cat shot: X-47B launches Navy into new era

摘要

The U.S. Navy launched an unmanned jet off an aircraft carrier on the morning of May 14. The move marks the most important milestone so far in a planned seven-year, $1.5 billion effort to prove the technologies associated with building and fielding an unmanned, carrier-based jet aircraft -- something never done before -- and a type of aircraft that many see as underpinning the future of carrier-based air. "We saw history today," Rear Adm. Ted Branch, commander of Naval Air Forces Atlantic, gushed to reporters on board the Bush after the launch of the X-47B concept demonstrator. "This is more than a step. This is a stride into the future of naval aviation." The launch took place in calm weather on a sunny day about a hundred miles off the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland. The X-47B, one of two aircraft built by Northrop Grumman for the Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System demonstration program, had been aboard the Bush for several days. This allowed program engineers and the ship's crew to get used to directing an aircraft around a carrier flight deck -- often referred to as the world's most dangerous workplace -- without anyone in the cockpit. Instead, the aircraft is controlled on the flight deck by a strap-on controller device worn by a crew member.