X-47A Pegasus UCAV
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.
Northrop Grumman designed and built the unmanned system with its own funds to demonstrate aerodynamic qualities suitable for autonomous flight operations from an aircraft carrier as part of the company's naval unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV-N) program. Designed with stealth features and shaped like a kite, Pegasus is shaped like a kite and built largely with composite materials. The air vehicle measures 27.9 feet long with a nearly equal wingspan of 27.8 feet.
On 26 February 2001 Northrop Grumman Corporation's Integrated Systems Sector (ISS) unveiled its design for an unmanned aircraft that the company will fly later in 2001 to demonstrate some of the technologies emanating from its new Advanced Systems Development Center (ASDC). A full-scale model of the Pegasus unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was rolled out of a hangar to culminate the opening ceremony for the center. The actual vehicle, being built with company funds for the flight demonstration program, was expected to be completed in the summer of 2001. The new center houses approximately 500 employees along with laboratories and other technical facilities formerly located at other Northrop Grumman sites in Pico Rivera, El Segundo and Hawthorne, CA.
On 19 July 2002 Northrop Grumman Corporation's Integrated Systems sector achieved a milestone in preparation for the first flight of its X-47A Pegasus experimental unmanned air vehicle (UAV) with the successful completion of the vehicle's first taxi test at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, Calif. The X-47A Pegasus, an experimental unmanned air vehicle designed and built by Northrop Grumman Corporation's Integrated Systems sector, completed its first taxi test at the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif. The unmanned system will be used to demonstrate aerodynamic qualities suitable for autonomous flight operations from an aircraft carrier as part of the company's naval unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV-N) program.
The low-speed taxi test was designed to exercise the X-47A's command and control, steering, brakes and navigation. The test consisted of five segments, each conducted autonomously after initiation by a ground controller. The first verified movement of the air vehicle and validated start and stop taxi commands. The remaining four segments allowed the vehicle to move down the runway in increments of increasing length from 20 to 300 feet. All test objectives were met.
Northrop Grumman's X-47A Pegasus team will analyze the data in preparation for additional taxi tests leading to first flight. Previously, the team completed a series of engine runs and conducted avionics and software integration at the company's Advanced Systems Development Center in El Segundo.
The results of the Pegasus flight demonstration program will be used in Northrop Grumman's UCAV-N work for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Navy. The goal of the joint DARPA/Navy UCAV-N project is to demonstrate the technical feasibility for an unmanned system to effectively and affordably conduct sea-based surveillance, strike and suppression of enemy air defenses missions within the emerging global command and control architecture.
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, CA, 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 flight began at 7:56 a.m. and lasted 12 minutes. Specific test objectives included low-speed handling qualities, air vehicle performance, commitment to significantly reduce the risk for our navigation performance and collection of landing dispersion date. All test objectives were met. Most significantly, the X-47A successfully landed near a predesignated touchdown point to simulate the tailhook arrestment point on a carrier flight deck. This landing data, coupled with subsequent flight touchdown points, will demonstrate the X-47A system's landing accuracy potential, The, shipboard relative, global positioning satellite system was used as the primary navigation source for increased landing precision.
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.
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