The canicule of piloted action aircraft are bound advancing to an end, anon to be heavily aggrandized if not absolute replaced by UCAS, or Unmanned Action Air Systems. Just yesterday, the Navy's X-47B demonstrator accepted that manned and unmanned operations can yield abode on the aforementioned flight deck.
The X-47B has already apparent that is can yield off and acreage apart aboard a roiling flight deck. During a alternation of balloon flights aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt yesterday, Navy advisers advised whether the pilotless bombinate could anxiously chain up and landing alongside accepted aircraft after colliding. Per a Navy columnist release:
The aboriginal alternation of manned/unmanned operations began this morning [Aug. 17] if the address launched an F/A-18 and an X-47B. After an eight-minute flight, the X-47B accomplished an arrested landing, bankrupt its wings and taxied out of the landing area. The deck-based abettor acclimated anew developed accouter administration ascendancy to manually move the aircraft out of the way of added aircraft, acceptance the F/A-18 to blow down abutting abaft the X-47B's recovery.
This accommodating barrage and accretion arrangement will be again assorted times over the beforehand of the planned analysis periods. The X-47B performed assorted arrested landings, catapults, flight accouter taxiing and accouter refueling operations.
Clearly, there is still abundant added testing to be done afore these free flyers access alive account but abstruse beforehand that keeps our airmen out of harm's way can't appear anon enough, and it's appropriate on the horizon. [DoD via The Aviationist]
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