Northrop, NASA Conclude ‘Global Hawk’ UAS Flight Control Testing

Northrop Grumman and NASA have completed flight control testing of the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial system at the Grand Sky testing facility in North Dakota.

The long-endurance UAS flew from Edwards Air Force Base in California under the operation of a NASA crew, after which a team at Grand Sky took over maneuvering of the unmanned platform, Northrop said Tuesday.

Kristen Griffin, strategy director for autonomous systems at Northrop, said that work conducted at Grand Sky will help advance research and development of autonomous systems while supporting the emerging needs of customers.

“In the near future, we expect to provide full flight test capability to support our government and commercial customers,” she noted.

Northrop is constructing a hangar near the UAS business and aviation park to further support Global Hawk efforts at the Grand Forks AFB.

Grand Sky was established in 2017 to provide a location for training and R&D activities to support the development of UAS and other autonomous aircraft systems.