From the Archives: Fly A Kite
The cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology’s Feb. 19, 2001, issue featured an artist’s concept of Northrop Grumman's Pegasus X-47A unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) flying over the U.S. Navy's test facility at China Lake, California.
In the hope of establishing a foothold in the UCAV market, the company advanced an unorthodox kite- or diamond-shape aircraft and built the initial demonstrator using its own funds as a foundation for its work on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Navy UCAV program.
At the time, the proof-of-concept demonstrator was expected to fly later in 2001, but this milestone wouldn’t actually occur for another two years. In 2003 the separate Air Force and Navy UCAV programs were merged into J-UCAS, which involved Northrop’s follow-on X-47B and Boeing’s X-45. J-UCAS was terminated as part of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, but the Navy’s portion lived on as UCAS-D and eventually led to Boeing’s MQ-25 Stingray carrier-based uncrewed aerial refueler.
Read the full issue and see the cover of the February 19 2001 |Aviation Week issue.
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