Almost anyone can fly a plane off a runway – the skill set for a small General Aviation plane like a Cessna 152 is rather small. Believe it or not, ANY one can land a plane – gravity and physics stand ready to help the plane meet the ground. It is far harder, however, to land it in such a fashion that 1) you can walk away unaided and 2) the plane can fly again.
Back in May, the US Navy launched its first UAV / UCAS drone off the flight deck of an aircraft carrier – a robot plane under both human operator and autonomous operation. Now the Navy has closed that loop in having an XB-47 drone successfully land on that same deck.
From Military.com:
“…The bat winged-shaped jet built by Northrop Grumman Corp. made a smooth approach, touched down on the flight deck and came to a sudden halt after catching an arresting cable aboard the USS George H.W. Bush at about 1:40 p.m. The ship — the Navy’s newest nuclear-powered carrier — was sailing about 70 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, Va., in the Atlantic Ocean.
…Before landing for the first time, the unmanned aerial vehicle and a pair of F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets screamed over the ship’s tower in a choreographed flight plan. An SH-60 Seahawk hovered off to the side, ready to respond to an emergency.
The X-47B then made a series of carrier landings and take-offs. The craft flew autonomously in pre-programmed routes, though a human operator was present to take over control, if necessary. It was to later return to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
…The mission, however, wasn’t flawless. The Navy in an e-mail later in the day said on the third attempted landing the drone detected a software glitch, aborted the mission and landed at Wallops Island, Va., a designated shore-based landing site.”
Still, a carrier landing is THE hardest thing that an aviator can do – even during the day. Get that to happen when the deck is really pitching during bad weather and heave seas – at night? Few, indeed can do that. That a drone can now do this requires a HECK of a lot of technology to work, work right, and work always.
(H/T: Defense Tech)
