ROBOTIC BOMBER X-45A DROPS DUMMY IN TEST.Byline: Daily News EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - Boeing's X-45A dropped a dummy in the first test of a bomb drop from the internal bay of a high-speed, 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. , unmanned aircraft Unmanned Aircraft (UA) is a term used in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) definition of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). UA refers to the aircraft portion of the system required to operate it, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. . The March 20 test also took the unmanned combat aerial vehicle, or UCAV UCAV Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle UCAV Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicle UCAV Uninhabited Combat Aerial Vehicle , to its maximum speed and altitude of about 495 mph and 35,000 feet, verified proper operation of the weapon bay door and tested the X-45A's ability to transmit a radar image to the ground operator, said 2nd Lt. Devon Christensen, deputy program manager for the aircraft at the Air Force Flight Test Center. ``All testing leading up to Saturday's weapon jettison jettison (jĕt`əsən, –zən) [O.Fr.,=throwing], in maritime law, casting all or part of a ship's cargo overboard to lighten the vessel or to meet some danger, such as fire. went extremely well,'' Maj. Mike Marston, X-45A test pilot, was quoted in a printed announcement from the base. ``The time and preparation put in paid big dividends when the inert weapon successfully cleared the aircraft's internal weapon bay.'' The test program is aimed at developing an unmanned combat aircraft to conduct a variety of missions for both the Air Force and the Navy. Those missions would include surveillance, scrambling enemy electronic communications and attacking anti-aircraft missiles, guns and radar. The U.S. military already operates several unmanned craft in surveillance missions, and one of those - the Predator - has been used to shoot missiles at vehicles on the ground. In a March 11 flight to test changes to software, the X-45A unexpectedly had to be redirected around the flight pattern. When an in-flight emergency was declared by another aircraft, air traffic controllers redirected the X-45A to allow the other aircraft to land safely. Boeing officials said that demonstrates the X-45A's ability to operate around manned aircraft. The drop test March 20 used a ``smart bomb'' dummy, a model for Boeing's small-diameter bomb that is in development for the unmanned aircraft, officials said. The test flights are leading up to a planned drop this month of a small smart bomb, guided by global positioning satellite, at China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center The Naval Air Warfare Center was a former U.S. Navy military installation located in Warminster, Pennsylvania and Ivyland, Pennsylvania. The U.S. Navy purchased the grounds to establish this facility from the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation following its bankruptcy in the . The X-45A team is part of a joint effort of 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). , Air Force, Navy, Boeing and National Aeronautics aeronautics: see aerodynamics; airplane; aviation. and Space Administration's Dryden Flight Center at Edwards. Flight testing of the X-45A began at Edwards in May 2002. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Boeing's X-45A unmanned combat aerial vehicle or UCAV, shown in an artist's drawing, successfully dropped a dummy ``smart bomb'' in a recent test, military officials announced. Boeing |
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