CHINA LAKE TESTS UNMANNED COMBAT CRAFT UNVEILED.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer MOJAVE - Pegasus, a kite-shape, stealthy stealth·y adj. stealth·i·er, stealth·i·est Marked by or acting with quiet, caution, and secrecy intended to avoid notice. See Synonyms at secret. airplane aimed at proving that unmanned combat aircraft can operate from ships, was unveiled Monday. Conceived, designed and financed by Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. and built with the assistance of Mojave's Scaled Composites Scaled Composites (often abbreviated as Scaled), formerly the Rutan Aircraft Factory, is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States and is headed by aircraft designer Burt Rutan. , Pegasus went from idea to rollout in just 12 months and 12 days. Pegasus will be flight-tested at the China Lake Naval Warfare naval warfare Military operations conducted on, under, or over the sea and waged against other seagoing vessels or targets on land or in the air. The earliest naval attacks were raids by the armed men of a tribe or town using fishing boats or merchant ships. Center near Ridgecrest later this year. ``The Navy said they wanted to explore the possibility of an unmanned vehicle in the fleet mix,'' said Chris Hernandez, a Northrop Grumman vice president in charge of the project. ``This airplane will answer the question, 'Can you have a carrier-based unmanned airplane land on a moving carrier deck?''' The airplane is 27 feet, 9 inches long and has a wingspan of 27 feet, 8 inches. The aircraft, built with composite materials similar to those used in the B-2 bomber, weighs about 5,500 pounds - less than one-third the weight of an F-16 fighter. ``It looks like a kite that you made with two sticks in grammar school,'' said Dan Rihn, the project's chief engineer. The tailless aircraft A tailless or tail-less aeroplane traditionally has all its horizontal control surfaces on its main wing surface. It has no (horizontal stabilizer - either tailplane or canard foreplane (nor does it have a second wing in tandem arrangement). is controlled by six control affectors operated by computer. Because the design of Pegasus is very aerodynamically unstable, Rihn said, the airplane would crash without the computer constantly making dozens of small corrections. The Navy's goal is to develop a computer-controlled aircraft capable of blowing up enemy air defense radar and air defense weapons systems and providing battlefield surveillance Systematic observation of the battle area for the purpose of providing timely information and combat intelligence. See also surveillance. . The Navy is looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. an aircraft with a range of 900 miles that is capable of handling up to 2,000-pound weapons. For surveillance work, the Navy wants an aircraft capable of 12-hour missions. The aircraft's missions would be pre-programmed and could be conducted without any assistance from a ground station. The aircraft would have the capability of having its missions reprogrammed in flight. Northrop Grumman and Boeing were each awarded $2 million, 15-month contracts in June 2000 to conduct performance studies and preliminary design work for an aircraft carrier-based unmanned combat aircraft. The program is being conducted jointly by the Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), U.S. government agency administered by the Department of Defense (see Defense, United States Department of). , the same organization that helped develop the F-117 stealth fighter in the 1980s. To give its company a leg up on the competition, Northrop Grumman decided to build Pegasus to prove technology concepts. The company is using about $35 million of its own money to build and flight-test Pegasus. Boeing, which also is working on an unmanned combat air vehicle The Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) or "combat drones" is the name of a new class of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). They differ from ordinary UAVs, because they are designed to deliver weapons (attack targets) – possibly with a great degree of autonomy. program for the Air Force, has opted not to build an aircraft for this phase of the Navy program, focusing instead on using technology being developed for the Air Force vehicle for the Navy vehicle. To expedite its construction, Northrop Grumman turned to famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, a company noted for its aircraft prototype work and for its expertise in building carbon-fiber composite aircraft and structures. Northrop Grumman plans to make a dozen flights with the aircraft, focusing on handling qualities that would be required for operations from an aircraft carrier. The flight testing will involve simulated aircraft carrier landings at the China Lake. The military is interested in unmanned combat aircraft because it keeps pilots out of harm's way beyond the danger limit; in a safe place. - Latimer. See also: Out and because there is a potential to make such aircraft cheaper and easier to maintain that manned aircraft. The Navy wants to bring unmanned combat aircraft into its air fleet after 2010. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) The Northrop Grumman Pegasus, an unmanned experimental aircraft, is rolled out Monday for the first time. (2 -- color in Verb 1. color in - add color to; "The child colored the drawings"; "Fall colored the trees"; "colorize black and white film" color, colorise, colorize, colour in, colourise, colourize, colour AV edition only) The sleek, unmanned experimental aircraft resembles a child's kite made with two sticks, said the project's engineer. (3 -- color -- ran in Business section only) Northrop Grumman officials show off the Pegasus, an unmanned experimental aircraft. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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