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Northrop Grumman X-47B Tailless UCAS
Maiden Flight Video

Is this cool or what? Unmanned aerial dog fighting is not far off. I suppose taking the human pilot out of the equation greatly reduces risk to the mission and aircraft, but the drama is not quite there anymore without the guy in the cockpit. Even in Star Trek and Star Wars there were still humans (or aliens) flying the battle craft. I must say it was always a bit strange that such high tech guns seemed to miss their targets more often than they hit them; surely automated systems acquired and tracked targets with infinitely greater capability than our current computers. But I digress. You'll really appreciate the creativity and genius of American and European engineering that continually advanced the state of the art in every realm of science.

From the Northrop Grumman website:

"The X-47B is a tailless, strike fighter-sized unmanned system currently under development by Northrop Grumman as part of the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) program. Under a contract awarded in 2007, the company has designed, developed and is currently producing two X-47B aircraft. In the 2013 timeframe, these aircraft will be used to demonstrate the first carrier-based launches and recoveries by an autonomous, low-observable relevant unmanned aircraft. The UCAS-D program will also be used to mature relevant carrier landing and integration technologies, and to demonstrate autonomous aerial refueling by the X-47B aircraft. "





Posted 6/18/2011