X-47B Update

For some reason, I put my post about the successful landing of the X-47B aboard a carrier at sea over on my modeling blog, http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2013/07/well-that-was-special.html

My other two posts on this subject were on this blog:

http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-first-launch-of-unmanned-aircraft.html

http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2011/07/look-no-hands.html

One interesting aspect of the control of the X-47B when it is on deck is that there are two guys, the primary and a backup (in this case Northrop Grumman test pilots), with the remote control hardware; they send commands to the X-47 to stop, to, turn, fold/unfold wings, etc. in accordance with the hand signals from the usual plane director in the yellow shirt just as if they were in the cockpit.

The taxi controller: