X-47A Pegasus UCAV-N
As part of Northrop’s Naval UCAV efforts, they produced the X-47A Pegasus vehicle – a demonstrator designed to explore for the first time the applicability of stealthy, tail-less shapes to the aircraft carrier environment. The Pegasus vehicle flew on FEB 23rd,. 2003. A small vehicle of only 5,500 lbs take-off gross weight, it used relative GPS for precision approach and landing, touching down with sufficient accuracy to have caught a wire in a carrier arrested landing.
In June 2001 Northrop Grumman Corporation's Integrated Systems Sector (ISS) received an 'X' designation for the company's Pegasus demonstration aircraft, a tailless, kite-shaped UAV. Pegasus carries the designation X-47A, and a refined Navy Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV-N) was later designated the X-47B was planned to be built under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA)-Navy UCAV-N program. Designed with stealth features and shaped like a kite, Pegasus is built largely with composite materials. The aircraft measures 27.9 feet long and has a nearly equal wingspan of 27.8 feet.
In February 2001 Northrop Grumman Corporation's Integrated Systems Sector (ISS) unveiled its design for an unmanned aircraft that the company planned to fly later in 2001 to demonstrate some of the technologies emanating from its new Advanced Systems Development Center (ASDC). One of the first tasks of the Pegasus flight program was to demonstrate the aerodynamic qualities of an autonomous UAV that would allow it to operate from an aircraft carrier. First flight was planned for the fourth quarter of 2001 at the Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, CA. But the X-47A was extensively tested on the ground during 2001 and 2002 (including taxiing). The first flight of the X-47A remained the only one.
Northrop Grumman laid the groundwork for a successful UCAV demonstrator program on 23 February 2003 with the fully autonomous first flight of the company-funded X-47A Pegasus. Conducted at Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, Calif., the flight test demonstrated Pegasus' ability to approach a ``carrier deck'' on a flight path consistent with carrier operations and land within a few feet of a pre-designated spot. The company expected to leverage the UAV experience and systems development expertise of its Pegasus flight test team in refining its X-47B development plans.
In April 2003, DARPA combined the UCAV-N program with the on-going USAF/DARPA UCAV program into the joint DARPA/USAF/Navy J-UCAV program, later renamed J-UCAS (Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems). Northrop Grumman apparently decided that further flight tests of the X-47A would not help the development of its forthcoming J-UCAS demonstrator, designated X-47B, which had not much in common with the X-47A.
