FIRST TEST MEETS GOALS AIRCRAFT'S FLIGHT TERMED SUCCESS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

RIDGECREST - Northrop Grumman's experimental X-47A Pegasus aircraft has made a successful first flight at the China Lake Naval Warfare Center, officials said Monday.

Designed to try out technologies for future Navy fighters, the kite-shaped, unmanned aircraft took off at 7:56 a.m. Sunday and flew for 12 minutes at up to 150 mph before landing in a test of its low-speed handling, navigation and other features.

``We're tickled pink,'' said Pegasus program manager Dave Mazur. ``The plane performed very well.''

The X-47A ended the flight with a simulated aircraft carrier landing. The aircraft landed 18 feet long and 16 feet off-center of its target spot, but was good enough that had it been done on an actual carrier it would have made a successful landing, Mazur said.

The test team will look to refine the aircraft's performance over the course of the flight test program.

The X-47A wobbled a bit at the flight's top speed of approximately 150 mph, but engineers hopes to make adjustments and return to flying in two or three weeks.

The flight test team would like to get in 30 to 40 landings, Mazur said.

Northrop Grumman and Boeing are under contract with the U.S. Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to demonstrate the technical feasibility for an unmanned aircraft to be launched from an aircraft carrier and conduct combat and surveillance missions.

The Navy's goal is to develop a computer controlled aircraft capable of performing such missions as attacking enemy air defense radar and weapons systems and providing battlefield surveillance. The goal is to have aircraft capable of flying themselves to their targets and back, using preprogrammed mission plans.

The Navy also wants the aircraft to have the ability to receive changes to its mission programming in midflight.

Northrop Grumman has invested more than $40 million of its own money to design, build and flight test the X-47A to assist with that effort.

``The Pegasus program represents our commitment to significantly reduce the risk for our DARPA and Navy customers on the UCAV-N (unmanned combat air vehicle - Navy) program,'' said Gary W. Ervin, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems sector vice president for Air Combat Systems. ``Regular unmanned flight operations aboard a flight deck at sea have never been attempted, and Pegasus addressed some of those key concerns today.''

Pegasus is 27 feet, 9 inches long, and has a wing span of 27 feet, 8 inches. The aircraft was built with composite materials similar to the B-2 bomber and weighs about 5,500 pounds - less than one-third the weight of an F-16 fighter.

The aircraft was built by Scaled Composites in Mojave, the company owned by aircraft designer Burt Rutan.

The Pentagon is in the process of reshaping the Navy's unmanned combat air vehicle program and might possibly join it with a similar program being undertaken by the Air Force. Program officials expect that Northrop Grumman and Boeing will be asked by the Navy to build prototype aircraft for flight tests.

Boeing, which also is working on an unmanned combat air vehicle program for the Air Force, has opted not to build an aircraft for this phase of the Navy program. Instead, Boeing is focusing on trying to leverage as much of the technology being developed for the Air Force vehicle for use with the Navy vehicle.

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The X-47A Pegasus aircraft ended its test flight with a simulated carrier landing.