X-47B makes historic carrier launching

Naval aviation history was made yesterday, as an autonomous unmanned aircraft took off from a US Navy nuclear aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia. The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator (UCAS-D) took to the air from the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) and is part of a program to develop carrier-based unmanned combat aircraft capable of carrying out missions according to pre-programmed instructions rather than being under constant control by a ground-based pilot.

Launched from the Nimitz Class carrier at 11:18 AM (15:18 GMT) by steam catapult like an operational carrier-based aircraft, the X-47B was controlled by a mission operator aboard the Bush, but also operated autonomously for parts of the test. The drone executed several low-altitude carrier approaches to demonstrate its ability to operate in a carrier environment, then flew across Chesapeake Bay and landed at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, where it has spent the last year conducting shore-based tests.