Stealth Drone X-47B Launched From Aircraft Carrier

The stealth fighter-bomber drone X-47B, as of now just a technology demonstrator, was successfully catapulted from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier this week and thus becomes the first carrier-capable unmanned aircraft.

Because of unfavourable weather, two landing attempts by the UCAV on the carrier, which was under way off the coast of Virginia, were aborted and the tailless, strike-fighter-sized aircraft flew autonomously back to Naval Air Station Patuxent River where it landed 65 minutes later.

Northrop Grumman is the Navy's prime contractor for the UCAS Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program. The company designed, produced and is currently flight testing two X-47B air vehicles for the program. Air Vehicle 2 completed the catapult shot, seen in a video:

The X-47B design has a 4000 kilometer range of operation which would be by far the longest of any available carrier-based aircraft for the U.S. Europe is flight-testing a similar stealth drone at the moment, the nEUROn by Dassault Aviation, seen in the Video below:

The current at-sea period is the second such test period for the UCAS-D program. In December 2012, the program hoisted an X-47B aircraft aboard the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), then demonstrated that the aircraft could be maneuvered safely and precisely on the ship's flight deck, in its elevators and in its hangar bay.

In preparation for the launch, the UCAS-D program successfully completed a series of shore-based catapult shots at Naval Air Station Patuxent River between November and March. The air vehicle was transported by barge from Patuxent River to Naval Air Station Norfolk in early May, then hoisted aboard the ship.