NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The Navy is marking a milestone after it flew a full-sized, unmanned helicopter from the deck of a ship at sea.
Engineers from Northrop Grumman practiced taking off and landing the helicopter from the deck of the guided missile destroyer Jason Dunham off the coast of Virginia earlier this month.
The Virginian-Pilot reports(http://bit.ly/1wt2Nhu) that civilian pilots completed 32 takeoffs and landings with the drone over several days. The Navy also ran three full-scale test flights.
According to the Navy, the goal was to assess the drone's capabilities in different wind conditions and to see how well it could land on a ship moving at different speeds.
The Navy has been using the unmanned helicopter since 2009 for surveillance missions, but it had never been flown from a ship.
