Northrop Grumman X-47B

GE Aviation Delivers First X-47B Navy Unmanned Combat Air System Landing Gear

GE Aviation recently delivered the first fully-dressed landing gear to Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) in support of the X-47B Navy Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program.

"This delivery is a major step in supporting the Navy UCAS-D program as Northrop Grumman prepares for first flight later this year,” commented Sagar Patel, president of GE Aviation’s Mechanical Systems business. “We are proud of our landing gear team’s performance in achieving this key milestone. This program is a critical first step to provide the U.S. Navy with insight into how an autonomous aircraft might be integrated into future carrier operations. Performing the first-ever carrier launches and recoveries of an unmanned tailless aircraft of this size will be a historic accomplishment.”

The delivery includes production fully-dressed landing gear that is designed to meet and/or exceed all U.S. Navy carrier landing requirements for a fully loaded UCAS-D aircraft.

The X-47B UCAS landing gear system is designed to endure the challenges and rigors of catapult take-offs and arrested landings on U.S. Navy aircraft carriers at sea. GE is responsible for the design, development, qualification and manufacturing of the fully integrated landing gear system. Due to the demanding mission profiles required for this advanced carrier platform, the landing gear system incorporates the latest technology advancements in steering control from Parker Hannifin as well as anti-skid braking systems from Goodrich Corporation. GE Aviation’s combined systems make it the largest non-partner equipment supplier to the X-47B.

John Hahn, site leader for GE Aviation said, “We’ve had outstanding support from Northrop Grumman. Their involvement, along with the combined expertise of GE Aviation teams from Santa Ana and Duarte, CA, Cincinnati, OH and Yakima, WA contributed to the successful execution of this program. We have a genuine team effort within GE and with our customer."

U.S. Navy's X-47B UCAS scheduled to take to the air in early 2010

First flight of the U.S. Navy’s X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator will take place in second quarter of fiscal year 2010 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. First flight was planned for late 2009.

The Naval Air Systems Command UCAS-D program office (PMA-268) and industry partner Northrop Grumman continue pre-flight testing of the aircraft to ensure the system’s readiness to fly in early 2010.

"This is not in any sense a derivative aircraft," said Capt. Martin Deppe, program manager in Patuxent River, Md. "The Navy is breaking new ground here, and given both the resulting technical complexity and strategic importance of this program, we're taking a closer look before first flight to sort out any integration issues. We intend to do it right."

The X-47B ground-based check-outs, surrogate aircraft flight testing, and lab-based integration testing reveal challenges of ushering in a fundamentally new class of aircraft.

During recent X-47B system check-out activities, propulsion acoustic issues and engine start sequencing did not operate to required performance levels, requiring engineers to troubleshoot, make associated adjustments and perform additional testing both in the lab and on the aircraft before moving forward, according to Deppe.

Postponing first flight allows us to make those changes and then proceed with a thorough first flight review by a team of NAVAIR and Northrop Grumman subject matter experts, while remaining on-schedule for sea trials in 2012, said Deppe.

Taxi testing is the next major phase of pre-flight operations. Low-speed taxi testing is expected to commence no later than December, according to Deppe.

"So far, the issues have been manageable", said Deppe, "and we look forward to our first flight early in the new year, but we won't go until we're ready."

The X-47B will be the first unmanned jet aircraft to take off and land aboard an aircraft carrier. It also will be the first all-new aircraft of any kind to operate on the flight deck in more than 30 years.

The X-47B will demonstrate that a long-range, low-observable, flying-wing unmanned combat aircraft can operate safely from aircraft carriers and refuel in-flight to achieve ultra-long mission endurance, said Deppe.

Established in 2007, the UCAS-D program is intended to reduce risk and determine requirements for a potential follow-on acquisition program.

Unmanned U.S. Navy Jet Gets More Punch

A small, experimental jet intended to demonstrate a UAV's ability to operate off aircraft carriers just might see operational action, according to two top U.S. Navy officials.

The aircraft is the X-47B, being developed by Northrop Grumman under the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System (N-UCAS) program. Roughly $2 billion has been added by the Pentagon over the next five years to give the program a major boost. Most of that money, said Rear Adm. Bill Burke, was at the behest of the new Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Related Topics
"What we think it ought to do is deliver some sort of capability," Burke, the Navy's QDR director, told reporters Feb. 4 at the Pentagon. "It would be a real program; it wouldn't be a demo. We'd like it to be able to deliver kinetic effects or do [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] missions for us."
Burke cautioned that many decisions still lie ahead.
The first of two X-47Bs is scheduled to be delivered by Northrop early this year, with the second to follow late in 2010. Carrier-based tests are to begin next year.
Unlike other unmanned aerial vehicles, the X-47B - which looks like a miniature B-2 Stealth bomber - is intended as a strike aircraft that can operate from aircraft carrier flight decks.
X-aircraft are generally intended as technology demonstrators and not prototypes of operational aircraft, although both contenders for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program came from the X line. The N-UCAS program has been envisioned as leading to an operational Navy aircraft in about a decade, but the QDR may have spurred an effort to accelerate that timeline.
"There is a lively debate over whether or not the N-UCAS demonstrator should result in a penetrating, ISR strike bird, or be more of a strike fighter," Navy Undersecretary Bob Work said during a Feb. 2 interview. "That debate has not quite been resolved. Having this extra $2 billion added to the budget is going to help us resolve that debate."
The Navy needs to work to solidify the F-35 JSF program, Work said.
"Then the next thing we'll focus on like a laser beam is N-UCAS. What is that going to be? An A-12-like platform that's extremely low-observable, more of a bomber ISR penetrator, or more like a strike fighter? That's going to be an issue we're going to resolve by the next QDR, because the timing will be such that we're going to have the demonstration program done, we will have proven whether we can operate these unmanned systems on board the big deck, we will have more technology maturation, we'll have a lot better understanding on the requirements for the system.
"I'm very bullish on N-UCAS," Work added. "I just don't know exactly what it's going to look like, but I think we're going to resolve that over the next three or four years."

Unmanned Strike Jet Nearly Set For First Flight

The first unmanned aircraft designed as a carrier-based strike jet is almost ready to take to the air for the first time, U.S. Navy officials have confirmed. Northrop Grumman's X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) drone has been performing taxi tests for several weeks at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., as engineers run the aircraft through a long series of pre-flight tests and checks.

Program officials had hoped for a flight by mid-December, but weather and other factors have delayed the event. Officials were reluctant to specify an exact date, but are hopeful the flight will take place before the end of the year.
Two X-47Bs have been built by Northrop's Aerospace Systems sector under a 2007 development contract. The stealthy aircraft, which resembles a miniature B-2 bomber - also built by Northrop - is intended to test the concept of operating a small, unmanned, combat jet from aircraft carriers.
Although numerous technical and command-and-control issues need to be addressed to bring the concept to maturity, war planners have routinely been using X-47s in war games as part of a carrier strike group. In some cases, they have even swapped out the manned air wing for an all-UCAS wing, with, reportedly, great success.
Northrop's work on the program includes the design and development of airborne precision-guided positioning system algorithms to help navigate the aircraft, and autonomous aerial refueling technology to keep the planes aloft - perhaps for several days at a time.
The first plane was to have taken to the air in late 2009 under the original contract, with the first at-sea tests on a carrier to have been in 2011, but those dates have been pushed back. Initial seagoing tests now are scheduled for early 2013.
The single-engine, tailless X-47B has a wingspan of 62 feet and is 38 feet long. It is designed to carry 4,500 pounds of weapons in its payload bay, reach high subsonic speeds, and fly to altitudes of about 40,000 feet. Without refueling, it should be able to operate at ranges up to 2,100 nautical miles and stay in the air for more than six hours.
Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney and GKN Aerospace are teamed with prime contractor Northrop on the UCAS-D program.