The Unmanned Little Bird team in late March 2014 completed two days of flight demonstrations in Warrenton, Va., for international and U.S. visitors. The demonstration highlighted ULB’s ability to fly autonomously, controlled by a simple laptop in a hangar. Despite the fact that the helicopter flew by itself, a Boeing test pilot was on board.

Unmanned Little Bird has served as a test bed for technology from across Boeing for more than a decade, even standing in as a surrogate lunar lander during its development, but is also marketed to customers as a stand-alone product. The appeal of unmanning a helicopter like the MD 500 is enabling it to perform some of the "dull, dirty and dangerous" tasks that are not safe or practical for aircrews to perform such as providing precision cargo resupply, landing behind enemy lines, or landing on unimproved ground.

As the United States and other nations continue to recognize the value of, and develop requirements for, a larger, multi-mission unmanned helicopter platform, Boeing officials believe this market will continue to grow globally over the next decade for both civil and military applications. Boeing was the first to demonstrate these capabilities on two different versions of the Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) for the U.S. Marines.