The Stunning Record-Breaking Blended-Wing-Body Aircraft

Aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush in 2013, over a hundred witnesses waited under the July sun for the arrival of the Northrop Grumman X-47B.
Known as Salty Dog 502, the tailless jet-powered blended-wing-body aircraft embarked on course towards the Nimitz-class carrier from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. An intricate network of algorithms and sensors governed its control surfaces.
Upon its approach to the carrier, the X-47B precisely aligned with the deck, its systems fully integrated with the carrier's moving trajectory, and as it touched down, the aircraft seamlessly caught one of the arresting cables, coming to a halt with astonishing precision.
This wasn't just a successful landing; that day, the model had become the first to land on the deck of the aircraft carrier, guided not with a joystick and throttle controls managed by an onboard pilot. Instead, this drone achieved complete pilotless capability.
A groundbreaking moment; this was only the beginning of a new age in drone technology, paving the way for all unmanned aerial vehicles on carriers that have come since.

[@stevie-ray2020]

Only drawback to drones is the fact that a hostile nation is within their rights to shoot it down or seize it, if they see fit. Whereas doing the same to manned aircraft is considered an act of war!

[@proteusnz99]

Actually, both the Vought Regulus 1 and the V-1 copy Loon were launched off carriers. Of course they didn’t to land back on the carrier deck.
On a calm day, it looks fine, bad weather might be more interesting. On the other hand, it wouldn’t care if it was day or night.
I remember when the Autoland system was under development one unexpected problem was the system was so accurate that it kept hitting the same point on the runway starting to damage the concrete.

[@rocksnot952]

This will never be accepted by naval aviation, because it eliminates naval aviators.

[@JSFGuy]

They did add in an expanded margin of error so it wouldn't hit the same spot every time it was that accurate. This goes back some years.

[@martykarr7058]

Actually, that's from the F/A-18's ACLS. When they introduced it on the Stennis, it was so accurate they kept on hitting the same spot too often and after the 1st deployment had to replace part of the flight deck and change the algotithim.

[@JSFGuy]

This just posted.

[@martykarr7058]

It's essentially the A-12 Intruder II without people on board.

[@nafnaf0]

Elon could sell his FSD software for things like this, it will be worth billions