Meet the self-flying plane the Navy spent over $800 million to build

The unmanned aircraft spreads its wings in a historic catapult launch from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Here's how the U.S. Navy got everything shipshape.

Jon Skillings

July 11, 2013 1:46 p.m. PT

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U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman by Alan Radecki

X-47B flyby

An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator flies over the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. On May 14, 2013, one of the U.S. Navy's two X-47B aircraft did what no unmanned aircraft has ever done before -- made a catapult launch from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

After taking off from the Bush, the Navy said, the X-47B made several planned low approaches to the carrier (under the control of an operator aboard the ship) off the coast of Virginia and then flew across Chesapeake Bay to land at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., after an approximately 65-minute flight.

But the X-47B wasn't done carving out notches in naval history. Two months later, on July 10, 2013, it made its first arrested landing, no easy feat, also on the Bush -- that is, like piloted planes that land on a carrier, it used a hook on the underside of its fuselage to catch a cable stretched across the flight deck.

In the slideshow that follows, we'll take you through some of the steps that got the X-47B to its historic accomplishments in the spring and summer of 2013.

Editors' note: This slideshow was first published on December 1, 2012. It was updated later in December with photos of the X-47B on the flight deck of the USS Harry S. Truman at sea, and then again on May 14, 2013, with photos from the X-47B's flight from the USS George H.W. Bush. It was subsequently updated on July 11, 2013, with details of its arrested landings on the carrier.

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Northrop Grumman

X-47B at the catapult

An X-47B demonstrator gets ready on November 29, 2012, for an on-land take-off from a catapult -- the same sort of system that launched it from the carrier George H.W. Bush and into the history books.

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U.S. Navy

Getting up a head of steam

Before it got to the carrier test, the experimental X-47B had to prove itself in a trial run from dry land at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland -- its first-ever catapult launch, period.

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U.S. Navy

Ground crew stands by

The launch on November 29 was a success, according to the Navy and Northrop Grumman, the builder of the unmanned aircraft. "This test, in addition to the extensive modeling and simulation done prior to today, gives us great confidence in the X-47B's ability to operate on the flight deck," said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, the Navy UCAS program manager.

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Northrop Grumman

It's a bird. No, it's an X-47B

This shot of the sleek, birdlike X-47B in flight is from earlier in its test career, from September 2011 over Edwards Air Force Base in California.

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U.S. Navy

In for a landing

An X-47B (there are two of them in total) lands at the Pax River base in July 2012.

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Northrop Grumman

Remote-control test

The X-47B during remote-control tests that took place earlier in November. The deck operator (left) uses the Control Display Unit to move the aircraft into the proper position, working in conjunction with a flight deck director -- whose hand signals will be for the benefit of everyone else in the carrier's flight operations.

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Northrop Grumman

X-47B Control Display Unit

Here's a closer look at the X-47B Control Display Unit in action. "Instead of towing the aircraft out to the flight line, we can now start the X-47B outside its hangar, then use the CDU to taxi it out to the runway, or into a catapult for launch," Daryl Martis, Northrop Grumman's UCAS-D test director, said in a statement.

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Northrop Grumman

Yellow shirt

The flight deck director is also known as the "yellow shirt," for reasons that are readily apparent.

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U.S. Navy

Hoisted onto the flight deck

Also in November, one of the X-47B aircraft paid a visit to an actual flight deck, settling in aboard the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).

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U.S. Navy

A landing of a different sort

When it arrived on the Truman, the X-47B was just a few weeks from starting its first sea trials.

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U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class David R. Finley Jr.

On the flight deck

As of December 9, the X-47B had been conducting taxi tests on the flight deck of the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman. In the background is a C-2A Greyhound cargo aircraft.

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U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kristina Young

View from above

The X-47B looks quite moth-like when seen from on high.

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Northrop Grumman

On the elevator

The X-47B rides an aircraft carrier elevator.

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Northrop Grumman

Takes directions well

Sea trials in December 2012 were a success, according to the Navy and Northrop Grumman. "We proved that the X-47B air system is mature and can perform flawlessly in the most hostile electromagnetic environment on earth, a Nimitz class Navy aircraft carrier," said Mike Mackey, UCAS-D program director for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, in a statement on December 19.

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Northrop Grumman

Fair weather

The X-47B on the flight deck of the USS Harry S. Truman in December 2012.

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U.S. Navy photo

In the hangar bay

Now we see the X-47B aboard the carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) just ahead of its May 2013 flight. It's being towed into the carrier's hangar bay.

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U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman by Alan Radecki

Catapult launch

The X-47B makes its catapult launch from USS George H.W. Bush May 14, 2013.

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U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tony D. Curtis

And away it goes

Catapulted from the flight deck in May 2013, the X-47B feels the wind under its wings.

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U.S. Navy photo by MC3 Kevin J. Steinberg

The landing approach

On July 10, 2013, the X-47B had another big moment -- it made two arrested landings on the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush after having made a 35-minute flight from the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland. After each landing, the aircraft followed up with a new catapult launch. It would have made a third landing, but on that approach, the Navy said, the X-47B aircraft "self-detected a navigation computer anomaly" and headed to a designated alternative landing site on land at Wallops Island Airfield in Virginia.