﻿ US Navy details X-47B navigation system malfunction on 3rd
carrier landing attempt - 7/11/2013 - Flight Global   Washington
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today »  The Northrop Grumman X-47B landed twice aboard the USS
George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier, but a malfunction with one of
its three navigation computers prevented a third landing. The
aircraft subsequently diverted to Wallops Field, Virginia, as
programmed, for a safe recovery.  "There are three redundant
navigation computers on the X-47," says Capt Jaime Engdahl, the
US Navy's programme manager for unmanned systems. "We saw an
issue on one of those computers and decided we had done enough
for the day, flew the aircraft back and landed it."  The
aircraft makes its approaches autonomously, without human
interference. The computers onboard the aircraft noted the
anomaly affecting one of the three precision GPS computers, and
though capable of landing using only one, the aircraft is coded
to abort landing under those circ