The X-47B prototype on Tuesday flew off an aircraft carrier and into the history books. Today's achievement, the first-ever catapult launch of an unmanned aircraft from the flight deck of a carrier, promises to open up a new chapter in the annals of naval aviation. Photo: An X-47B pilot-less drone combat aircraft is launched for the first time off an aircraft carrier, the USS George H. W. Bush, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia, May 14, 2013. The U.S. Navy made aviation history on Tuesday by catapulting an unmanned jet off an aircraft carrier for the first time, testing a long-range, stealthy, bat-winged plane that represents a jump forward in drone technology. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

Locals sort through garbage at a roadside dump in New Delhi on January 10, 2017 The national capital has been reeling under tonnes of garbage after sanitation workers went on a strike demanding payment of pending salaries. (Photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP Photo)

A schoolgirl collects rubbish from Karachi's Clifton beach early morning April 22, 2013, during a cleaning campaign as part of the commemoration of Earth Day. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

A mahout walks next to his elephant through a busy street in Horana, a suburb of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo on March 23, 2021. (Photo by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP Photo)

A boat lies on a beach of the Isola Capo Rizzuto marine reserve in Calabria, Italy on November 14, 2021, where many wrecks of vessels used by migrants are abandoned. (Photo by Alessandro Serrano/AGF/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Festival-goers take photo inside of Spectra, a seven-story spiral walkway up to a viewing deck, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, on April 17, 2022. (Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP Photo)

Alice Cooke at the Sydney Women’s Reformatory in 1922. By the time she was 24 Alice Cooke had created an impressive number of aliases and at least two husbands, and was convicted of bigamy and theft. (Photo by My Colorful Past/Mediadrumworld)

A large bull walrus returns to the shores of Prins Karl Forland after diving and feeding on clams. (Photo by Paul Nicklen/National Geographic). Svalbard, Norway, 2011