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X-47B first test flight

Posted by Andrew Van Der Plaats on February 7, 2011 at 1:00pm

America’s fleet of 11 big-deck aircraft carriers just got a lot closer to becoming a lot more dangerous.

On Friday afternoon, Northrop Grumman’s X-47B, a prototype for the Navy’s first carrier-capable killer

drone, flew for the first time from Edwards Air Force Base in California.

 

Killer drone takes off

Tags: navy, x-47b
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Comments

  • Rich Weaver February 13, 2011 at 5:42am
    Son of a B2
  • Jeff February 10, 2011 at 12:38pm
    Elevons would be most beneficial I would think for a simplistic BWB, but I believe flaps could also be used for pitch control by changing the camber of the airfoil in the center of the wing effectively changing the Cm of the wing creating a positive or negative pitching moment. Many of the BWB designs have multiple (10+) control surfaces on the trailing edge of the wing. Most of what I read was based around sum(M) = 0 and this has to be done with just the airfoil of the blended wing which is obvious being that the airframe has no tail.
  • Joel Venable February 10, 2011 at 12:13pm

    Being a flying wing it should almost definitely have elevons, but I hadn't thought of differential drag for yaw control.  Being that everything flys-by-wire these days nothing should surprise me anymore...

     

    I remember browsing in Jane's aircraft (the big bible!) and was reading about a concept helicopter the size of a C-130.  The rotor was as big as the wings, and it had to use "tipjets" to spin that giant rotor!

  • Jeff February 10, 2011 at 11:24am
    Vectored thrust could be used, but also a statically stable configuration and the ability to move control surfaces to make it statically stable are most likely used in this. Vectored thrust may be used for yaw control but usually differential drag is used with the upper flaps on the wings. (I didn't see any signs of vectored thrust in the video) By controlling the Cm (moment coefficient) of the wing they can make it so it has a restoring moment when aoa is changed and the Cm can be changed by changing the wing geometry with the flaps/elevons to maintain a different aoa. Also the ailerons/elevons I believe can be used for both pitch and roll control and also I'm semi sure the upper flaps are used for yaw control. I could be off though on this, most of my reading has been on the X-48 and that has a slightly different geometry than this and different setup for control surfaces. They do share by both being BWB's.
  • Joel Venable February 10, 2011 at 9:29am

    WOW... low recovery WOD requirement, half the size of an F/A 18...  I'm guessing it uses vectored thrust to eliminate the need for a tail. 

     

    What's really great is the pilots can get chow while cruising...  ;)

  • Jeff February 9, 2011 at 9:22pm
    Yeah it says that, but on the first prototype they may have not implemented it yet. Focusing on flight characteristics instead of adding that capability yet. The display models, they have displayed at air shows have had folding wings and looked pretty good, but you could tell it was just a display and not a functional prototype/plane.
  • Michael Zaffuto February 9, 2011 at 8:28pm

    They think of everything....wings fold! :)

    3692167309?profile=original

  • Jeff February 9, 2011 at 8:22pm
    I'm sure they will make the wings fold, it was most likely in the design requirements. Also they did mention the capability to be able to fold the wings.. It will happen! :D
  • Joel Venable February 9, 2011 at 8:11pm
    They said unmanned... not autonomous.  Still, that's one heck of an RC airplane!  I hope the wings fold though or otherwise it would be a nightmare for the flight deck handlers...
  • Wouter van Verre February 8, 2011 at 12:09pm

    @Eric

    Maybe you saw the X-47A, which first flew in 2003?

     

    Loved the vid! This really is one cool UAV.

     

This reply was deleted.