ALAMEDA, Calif., 11 July 2013.Wind River, a provider of embedded and mobile software and a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corp., announced that Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) employed Wind River technology for the catapult launch and landing of the X-47B unmanned aircraft from the deck of the USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH carrier—a first in aviation history.
The Wind River VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS) is a key technology for the X-47B in the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program, according to a company representative.
The X-47B is the first tailless, autonomous unmanned aircraft to be developed for carrier operations. Northrop Grumman professionals developed the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the U.S. Navy and selected VxWorks as the software platform for the UCAS-D program.
“Wind River provides the trusted systems necessary to rapidly create, deploy, and maintain critical applications, as well as satisfy complex mission-critical requirements for next-generation intelligent systems like the X-47B,” says Chip Downing, senior director of aerospace and defense at Wind River. “Wind River is honored to be part of the UCAS-D industry team responsible for this groundbreaking military program, which is paving the way for the future of carrier-based autonomous systems technology.”
"The catapult launch and landing of the X-47B are historic milestones for the Navy, Northrop Grumman, and Wind River, whose technology has been critical to the success of this program,” adds Carl Johnson, vice president and Navy UCAS program manager for Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems sector.
