Northrop's YFQ-48A Flew a Complete Sortie on Its Own, Starting From the Taxiway

Northrop's Talon Blue, carrying the designation YFQ-48A, has made its first flight at Mojave, California, and it flew the entire sortie itself. It moved itself along the ground to the runway, got airborne, flew its planned maneuvers and brought itself back down to land. Owners should notice where that sequence starts. Taxi is the low-speed, close-quarters part of any day that a crew never hands to the avionics, and on this flight the aircraft did it as well. Takeoff, the airborne work and the landing all belonged to the airplane too. The Mojave desert, a familiar American flight-test setting, was where it happened. For a readership that keeps an eye on what an airframe can be trusted to do by itself, this was a whole flight from ramp to rollout.

With reporting from AVweb.