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)

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak speaks to the media after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Chancellery on April 23, 2008 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Shamans perform a ritual of predictions for the upcoming US election with posters of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton at the Agua Dulce beach in Lima on November 7, 2016. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump launched into the frenzied final day of their historic fight for the White House Monday, with blow-out rallies in the handful of swing states that will decide who leads the United States. (Photo by Ernesto Benavides/AFP Photo)

Divers perform during a Christmas-themed underwater show at the Aqua Planet 63 aquarium in Seoul on December 8, 2022. (Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo)

Models Miranda Kerr, Candice Swanepoel, Adriana Lima and Erin Heatherton attend The Reveal of the What Is s*xy? List celebrated by Victoria's Secret Bombshells at The Beverly on May 12, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)

A member of the Eton public school O.T.C. (Officers Training Corps) practising shouting out orders during a training session, 20th January 1940. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

People sit near a fully loaded in Madama near the border with Lybia on January 1, 2015. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian paid a surprise visit to northern Niger on January 1, to visit a base being built to combat the growing flow of weapons and jihadists from neighbouring Libya. Le Drian travelled from Chad to Madama, a desert outpost about 100 kilometres from Libya, where he saw in the New Year with troops at a French base. Madama is situated on the route used by jihadists and arms smugglers in southern Libya to reach northern Mali and Niger. (Photo by Dominique Faget/AFP Photo)

Two men fight in San Jose, Costa Rica, during the Women's Day on March 8, 2014. (Photo by Jeffrey Arguedas/EFE/SIPA Press)