Navy's X47-B bat wing drone has first flight test

X-47B Over CVImage via Wikipedia
LA Times:

A bat-winged robotic jet resembling a miniature B-2 stealth bomber flew for the first time at Edwards Air Force Base in a test flight that could mark a new age in naval aviation.

Century City-based Northrop Grumman Corp.’s experimental drone, dubbed X-47B, climbed to 5,000 feet in a 29-minute flight on Friday, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

The X-47B is being developed to take off from an aircraft carrier, drop a bomb on an enemy target and then land back on a carrier, all without a pilot.

"Today we got a glimpse towards the future as the Navy’s first-ever tailless, jet-powered unmanned aircraft took to the skies," said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, X-47B program manager, in a statement.

...

Currently, combat drones are controlled remotely by a human pilot. The X-47B could carry out a combat mission controlled entirely by a computer. A human pilot designs a flight path and sends it on its way and a computer program guides it from a ship to target and back.

In 100 years of naval aviation, only experienced pilots have performed the difficult task of landing a fighter on an aircraft carrier in the ocean.

The X-47B is designed to fly farther and stay in the air longer than existing aircraft because it does not depend on a human pilot's endurance. Navy fighter pilots may fly missions that last up to 10 hours. Current drones can fly for three times that long.

...
It is not particularly fast at 500 MPH, but it can fly at 40,000 feet.  I think it is pretty cool.  It will take a real geek to program its mission.
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