Post by auntym on Aug 1, 2012 11:18:11 GMT -6
defense.aol.com/2012/08/01/navy-teaches-robot-top-gun-to-fly-off-aircraft-carriers/?icid=maing-grid7
Sea
Navy Teaches Robot Top Gun, X-47, To Fly From Aircraft Carriers[/size]
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Published: August 1, 2012
Navy X-47B UCAS At Patuxent River
NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER: Landing a jet plane on an aircraft carrier is one of the hardest and most dangerous things a human being can do, with pilots' stress levels spiking higher than in combat. Now the Navy is trying to teach a robot how to do it: The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System, the UCAS.
"You have to think of every single contingency and work it into the software," said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, the Navy's UCAS program manager, at an event yesterday to roll out the X-47B for the press. The two UCAS aircraft, built by Northrop Grumman, have already gone through extensive testing at Edwards Air Force Base in California, but that was just landing and taking off from a conventional airstrip. Now both robot planes have moved out east to Patuxent River to work on "the basics of operating around the aircraft carrier," Engdahl said.
UCAS isn't doing any weapons testing yet; it has no bombs or reconnaissance cameras or other "mission systems" aboard: First it has to master taking off and landing in the most difficult environment in the world. That's especially daunting when you consider that unmanned aircraft still have an uncomfortably high chance of a crash just trying to landing on an ordinary airfield. The Navy, like all the armed services, already makes heavy use of unmanned aircraft operating out of ground bases, and a robotic mini-helicopter called the Fire Scout has flown from Navy frigates, but no one has ever operated a full-up jet aircraft off an aircraft carrier. UCAS will be the first, in 2013. Now the Navy just has to get ready.
On Sunday, the UAS program made its first flight from "Pax River," as it's known in the Navy. An X-47 took off from the runway here and flew simple loops over the Chesapeake Bay in order to confirm that the unmanned aircraft could work with all the air traffic control systems here -- which include a full suite of the equipment used at sea. "This is the actual hardware and software we have on the aircraft carrier," said Cdr. Jeff Dodge of NASIF, the awkwardly named "Navy UCAS Aviation/Ship Integration Facility" here, which replicates a carrier's control center. The X-47 was linked into NASIF's simulated ship during Sunday's test flight.
In fact, there are so many electronic systems emitting signals on a carrier that the UCAS had to go through two months of testing just to make sure there wasn't accidental interference: It's bad enough when your TV remote control accidentally opens your garage door, but that kind of mixed signals with a high-performance aircraft could get you killed.
SEE MORE PICTURES & CONTINUE READING: defense.aol.com/2012/08/01/navy-teaches-robot-top-gun-to-fly-off-aircraft-carriers/?icid=maing-grid7
Sea
Navy Teaches Robot Top Gun, X-47, To Fly From Aircraft Carriers[/size]
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Published: August 1, 2012
Navy X-47B UCAS At Patuxent River
NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER: Landing a jet plane on an aircraft carrier is one of the hardest and most dangerous things a human being can do, with pilots' stress levels spiking higher than in combat. Now the Navy is trying to teach a robot how to do it: The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System, the UCAS.
"You have to think of every single contingency and work it into the software," said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, the Navy's UCAS program manager, at an event yesterday to roll out the X-47B for the press. The two UCAS aircraft, built by Northrop Grumman, have already gone through extensive testing at Edwards Air Force Base in California, but that was just landing and taking off from a conventional airstrip. Now both robot planes have moved out east to Patuxent River to work on "the basics of operating around the aircraft carrier," Engdahl said.
UCAS isn't doing any weapons testing yet; it has no bombs or reconnaissance cameras or other "mission systems" aboard: First it has to master taking off and landing in the most difficult environment in the world. That's especially daunting when you consider that unmanned aircraft still have an uncomfortably high chance of a crash just trying to landing on an ordinary airfield. The Navy, like all the armed services, already makes heavy use of unmanned aircraft operating out of ground bases, and a robotic mini-helicopter called the Fire Scout has flown from Navy frigates, but no one has ever operated a full-up jet aircraft off an aircraft carrier. UCAS will be the first, in 2013. Now the Navy just has to get ready.
On Sunday, the UAS program made its first flight from "Pax River," as it's known in the Navy. An X-47 took off from the runway here and flew simple loops over the Chesapeake Bay in order to confirm that the unmanned aircraft could work with all the air traffic control systems here -- which include a full suite of the equipment used at sea. "This is the actual hardware and software we have on the aircraft carrier," said Cdr. Jeff Dodge of NASIF, the awkwardly named "Navy UCAS Aviation/Ship Integration Facility" here, which replicates a carrier's control center. The X-47 was linked into NASIF's simulated ship during Sunday's test flight.
In fact, there are so many electronic systems emitting signals on a carrier that the UCAS had to go through two months of testing just to make sure there wasn't accidental interference: It's bad enough when your TV remote control accidentally opens your garage door, but that kind of mixed signals with a high-performance aircraft could get you killed.
SEE MORE PICTURES & CONTINUE READING: defense.aol.com/2012/08/01/navy-teaches-robot-top-gun-to-fly-off-aircraft-carriers/?icid=maing-grid7