Aurora Flight Sciences has delivered the first complete ship set of composite structures to Northrop Grumman Corporation for the US Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS) programme.
Aurora manufactures the aft fuselage, forward nacelle, mid nacelle, aft nacelle and V-tail assemblies of the MQ-4C BAMS UAS aircraft at its composites manufacturing facility in Bridgeport, West Virginia. These structures are then shipped to Northrop Grumman's manufacturing facility in Palmdale, California, for final assembly.
The MQ-4C BAMS UAS is the Navy version of the RQ-4 Global Hawk aircraft used by the US Air Force to execute surveillance and reconnaissance tasks.
The BAMS aircraft is expected to make its first flight in 2012.
Aurora, a builder of robotic aircraft and other advanced aerospace vehicles, has been a member of Northrop Grumman's Q-4 Enterprise team since 1995. Aurora's Global Hawk work includes all of the aircraft's composite components except the wing and radomes.
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