The X-47B is a tailless, carrier-capable unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator built by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Navy. In 2013 it became the first uncrewed aircraft to be catapulted from an aircraft carrier and the first to make an arrested landing on one, and in 2015 it made the first autonomous aerial refuelling by an uncrewed aircraft. Developed by Northrop Grumman.
The X-47B is a tailless, carrier-capable unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator built by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Developed by Northrop Grumman.
See Specifications for full detail.
The Northrop Grumman X-47B is a tailless, jet-powered, carrier-capable unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator built for the U.S. Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) programme. Two were built, and the first flew on 4 February 2011 at Edwards Air Force Base, California.[1]
On 14 May 2013 the X-47B became the first uncrewed aircraft to be catapulted from an aircraft carrier, and on 10 July 2013 the first to make an arrested landing on one, both aboard USS George H.W. Bush. On 22 April 2015 it made the first autonomous aerial refuelling by an uncrewed aircraft. It never carried weapons and never entered service, and both airframes are now stored by Northrop Grumman at Palmdale, California.[2][3][4]
The X-47 began under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) programme, run jointly for the Air Force and the Navy. Northrop Grumman's smaller X-47A Pegasus proof-of-concept aircraft, with a 27.8 ft (8.5 m) wingspan, first flew on 23 February 2003 at China Lake, California. J-UCAS was terminated in February 2006 following that year's Quadrennial Defense Review, and the Navy carried on alone.[1][5]
In 2007 the Navy awarded Northrop Grumman a $635.8 million contract for two carrier-capable demonstrators under the new UCAS-D programme. By January 2012 the estimated cost had grown to $813 million. The programme's aim was narrow: prove that a tailless, uncrewed jet could be launched, recovered and handled on a carrier deck alongside crewed aircraft, rather than develop a combat aircraft for service.[1][2]
The X-47B is a flying wing with no vertical tail, 38 ft 2 in (11.63 m) long with a 62.1 ft (18.9 m) wingspan whose outer panels fold to 30.9 ft (9.4 m) for stowage on a carrier. It is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney F100-220U turbofan, weighs up to 44,501 lb (20,185 kg) at take-off and has a published range of 2,400 mi (3,900 km) and a ceiling of 42,000 ft. Two internal weapons bays were sized for up to 4,500 lb (2,000 kg) of ordnance, although the aircraft was never armed.[1]
The aircraft flew semi-autonomously, carrying out its flight plan under computer control with operators supervising, rather than being flown by a remote pilot. It navigated with three independent navigation subsystems, so that a failure in one could be detected by the other two. For the refuelling trials in 2015 it was fitted with a fixed refuelling probe and a camera tracking system to guide the probe into a tanker's drogue.[1][2]
Envelope expansion at Edwards was completed in 16 flights against 49 planned, and the second aircraft, AV-2, first flew on 22 November 2011. After a land-based catapult launch in November 2012, the X-47B began carrier evaluation aboard USS Harry S. Truman on 26 November 2012 with deck-handling tests over a 15-day period. On 14 May 2013 it was catapulted from USS George H.W. Bush in the Atlantic, and it made its first touch-and-go landings on the same ship three days later.[1][2]
On 10 July 2013 the X-47B made the first arrested landing by an uncrewed aircraft on a carrier, followed by a second. A third approach was abandoned when one of the three navigation subsystems failed, and the aircraft diverted to Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. On 15 July AV-2 aborted another planned landing on George H.W. Bush because of a technical problem. The X-47B made its first night flight on 10 April 2014, and on 17 August 2014 it operated alongside F/A-18 Hornets aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt - the first integrated carrier operations of crewed and uncrewed aircraft.[1]
The UCAS-D programme was originally due to end in 2013, but Navy leadership had it extended to test autonomous aerial refuelling. On 22 April 2015, over the Atlantic Test Ranges off Maryland and Virginia, the X-47B manoeuvred its probe into the drogue of an Omega Aerial Refueling Services K-707 tanker using the Navy's probe-and-drogue method and took on more than 4,000 lb of fuel. It stayed connected for more than 11 minutes during five engagements, completing the final test objective of the programme.[3][6][2]
The Navy judged that design differences between the X-47B and its planned operational drone made further testing on the demonstrators too costly, and the aircraft were retired having used only about 20 percent of their allocated flying hours. The programme's carrier landings had already won Northrop Grumman, the Navy and the development team the 2013 Collier Trophy, presented on 9 April 2014.[6][1]
The X-47B was meant to lead into the Navy's Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) programme, for which Northrop Grumman proposed larger X-47C derivatives, including a bomber carrying 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) of weapons. In February 2016 the Navy recast UCLASS as a carrier-based refuelling drone with only limited strike capability, the requirement that became the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray. Northrop Grumman modified one X-47B as a testbed for its MQ-25 bid in 2017, then withdrew from the competition on 25 October 2017.[1]
The Navy had planned in April 2015 to send both aircraft to museums, then decided in July 2015 to keep them in flying condition. One left NAS Patuxent River for Northrop Grumman's facility at Palmdale, California, in January 2017, and in spring 2019 one airframe made a static engine run while the other stayed in its hangar. In August 2022 The War Zone reported that both - by then owned by Northrop Grumman rather than the Navy - were being prepared for delivery to two aviation museums, though where and when they will be displayed had not been announced.[1][4]
Both X-47Bs have been in storage since the test programme ended and will not appear on Flightradar24. During the programme they flew from Edwards AFB, NAS Patuxent River and aircraft carriers off the Virginia coast, and did not broadcast civil ADS-B.
| Performance | |
| Max Speed | ?? |
|---|---|
| Cruise SpeedCruise Speed — The economical speed an aircraft sustains for the bulk of a flight - lower than maximum speed, chosen for the best balance of time and fuel burn. Glossary → | High subsonic (Mach 0.9+) |
| RangeRange — How far an aircraft can fly without refuelling. Quoted figures vary with payload, speed and reserves - see also ferry range and combat radius. Glossary → | 2,400 mi |
| Service CeilingService Ceiling — The highest altitude at which an aircraft can still climb at a useful rate (typically 100 ft/min). Above it, the air is too thin to keep climbing meaningfully. Glossary → | 42,000 ft |
| Airframe & Weight | |
| Wingspan | 62 ft 1 in; 30 ft 11 in folded |
| Length | 38 ft 2 in |
| Height | 10 ft 5 in |
| WeightMTOW — Maximum Take-Off Weight - the heaviest an aircraft is certified to be at the start of its take-off run, including fuel, crew, payload and the aircraft itself. Glossary → | MTOW: 44,501 lb; zero-fuel: 28,837 lb |
| Power & Payload | |
| Engines | 1 x Pratt & Whitney F100-220U turbofan |
| ArmamentArmament — The weapons an aircraft can carry: guns, missiles, bombs and rockets, whether mounted internally, on wing hardpoints, or in bomb bays. Glossary → | None fitted - two internal weapons bays sized for up to 4,500 lb of ordnance were never used for weapons |
| Crew | None onboard - semi-autonomous |
| CapacityPayload — Everything an aircraft is carrying that isn't the aircraft or its fuel: passengers, cargo, or weapons. Payload and fuel usually trade off against each other. Glossary → | Two internal weapons bays, up to 4,500 lb |
| Program & Service | |
| Manufacturer | Northrop Grumman |
| Origin | United States |
| First Flight | February 4th 2011 |
| Service Entry | Never entered service |
| Retired | 2015 |
| Number Built | 2 |
| Unit Cost | Not publicly disclosed - two demonstrators were built under a UCAS-D contract of $635.8M (2007), estimated at $813M by January 2012 |
6 notable events involving the X-47B, 2011 to 2015. 0 deaths are recorded across the 1 of these with a figure listed. Curated rather than exhaustive.
Air Vehicle 1 made the X-47B's first flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
The X-47B was catapulted from USS George H.W. Bush in the Atlantic, the first launch of an uncrewed aircraft from an aircraft carrier.
The X-47B made two arrested landings aboard USS George H.W. Bush, the first by an uncrewed aircraft and the first by a tailless flying wing. A third approach was abandoned after one of its three navigation subsystems failed, and it diverted to Wallops Flight Facility.
AV-2 aborted a planned landing on USS George H.W. Bush because of a technical problem and did not land aboard that day.
The X-47B launched and recovered alongside F/A-18 Hornets aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt, the first time crewed and uncrewed aircraft operated together from a carrier deck.
Over the Atlantic Test Ranges off Maryland and Virginia, the X-47B took on more than 4,000 lb of fuel from an Omega K-707 tanker using probe-and-drogue refuelling - the first autonomous aerial refuelling by an uncrewed aircraft and the last test objective of the programme.
| X-47A Pegasus | Northrop Grumman's proof-of-concept predecessor, a much smaller tailless demonstrator with a 27.8 ft (8.5 m) wingspan. It first flew on 23 February 2003 at the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, California, and its 2003-2006 test programme supplied the basis for the X-47B. The aircraft is now displayed at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum in Maryland. |
| X-47B | The carrier-capable demonstrator built for the Navy's UCAS-D programme, with a 62.1 ft folding wing, a Pratt & Whitney F100-220U turbofan and two internal weapons bays. Two were built - Air Vehicle 1 and Air Vehicle 2, flown under the call signs Salty Dog 501 and 502 - and between 2011 and 2015 they made the first carrier launch, arrested landing and autonomous aerial refuelling by an uncrewed aircraft. |
| X-47C (proposed) | A family of larger derivatives Northrop Grumman proposed as the X-47B programme progressed, including a bomber version intended to carry a 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) bomb load. The designs were aimed at the Navy's UCLASS requirement, but none was built, and the Navy reworked UCLASS in 2016 into the carrier-based tanker programme that became the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray. |
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