NG’s X-47B aboard USS

T Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) and returned to its home base at Naval Air Station

Testing began when the X-47B performed its initial cooperative launch and recovery cycle with an F/A-18. With its automatic wing-fold capability and new tailhook retract system, the X-47B met the programme’s objective to demonstrate that carrier-based manned and unmanned aircraft could maintain a 90 second aircraft launch and recovery interval. The team evaluated the handling operations aboard a carrier. Since the shipboard environment presents different challenges at night, this test was an incremental step in developing