Ramon Lopez / Washington DC
X-47A demonstrator will be moved to Northrop Grumman's California plant later this month for further integration
Northrop Grumman's Pegasus X-47A naval unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV-N) demonstrator remains on track to begin flight testing before the end of the year.
Northrop Grumman officials say the company-funded 1,740kg (3,840lb) flying-wing technology demonstrator, powered by a 3,200lb-thrust (7.2kN) Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D-5C turbofan, was rolled out on 30 July at Mojave, California. Built by Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's rapid prototyping operation, the X-47A will be shipped to Northrop Grumman's El Segundo, California, facility before the end of the month for further integration.
X-47A flight testing will last for three months, during which Pegasus will practise carrier-type approaches and landings at the Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, California. David Mazur, programme manager, says the four-point effort is aimed at proving low-speed handling qualities equivalent to a conventional aircraft and use of a simulated arrestor wire. It will also demonstrate a next-generation vehicle management system provided by BAE Systems, and compatibility with the shipboard relative global positioning system, the next generation carrier-landing system.
The X-47B UCAV-N prototype, which is designed to carry a 1,800kg weapons load internally on 12h autonomous missions, remains under design. But Mazur says it will be a scaled-up version of the kite-shaped, tailless Pegasus, which has a 8.5m (28ft) wingspan.
The X-47B will need an 8,000-10,000lb-thrust turbofan. Northrop Grumman is holding a competition among General Electric, P&W Canada and Rolls-Royce Allison. P&WC is offering its PW308, which is being developed for the Raytheon Hawker Horizon corporate aircraft.
X-47B fabrication is set to start in January. Flight tests at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, are due to begin by early 2004, during which the X-47B is to demonstrate full carrier suitability.
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is competing Northrop Grumman against Boeing for future UCAV-N work. Boeing has said little about its UCAV-N, which resembles a small Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bomber, although it is known the company's UCAV-N demonstrator will be larger and have a longer range than the DARPA/US Air Force/Boeing X-45 UCAV.
DARPA will award $70-80 million Phase 2 research contracts in December to build and flight test the UCAV-N demonstrators.
The companies are now working under $12 million contracts, performing trade studies, analyses and preliminary design for the UCAV-N.
The first real carrier landings will not occur until Phase 3 of the programme. Plans call for the UCAV-N to enter engineering and manufacturing development in 2008-10.
Source: Flight International
