Air Force OKs autonomous cargo flights across California after successful test

Are these actually autonomous (no pilot at all) or just very large drones?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.xwing.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.xwing.com</a> <i>&quot;Our system changes the role and location of the pilot. The aircraft is fully self-sufficient with the pilot remotely supervising from a ground control station.&quot;</i><p>So, there&#x27;s a pilot somewhere, but it&#x27;s not clear if the pilot is flying remotely or just there for &quot;backup&quot;.

Was this supposed to be one of many tests, the final test, or THE test? I’ll read it again, but the way the writer has it framed makes it appear as if the Air Force conducted a 2800 mile flight-test and said, “Alright, we’ve seen enough,” and called it good.<p>[quote] “The use of Xwing’s autonomous aircraft eliminated the need to fly a larger aircraft such as a C-130 to deliver critical cargo to the warfighter on short notice,” said Maxime Gariel, president, chief technical officer and co-founder of Xwing. [&#x2F;quote]<p>Did it though? All jokes aside, since when was California an active war zone? (I tried to frame this better—-under siege, in a fire-fight, etc. but kept coming up short)<p>This would be too far a stretch to assume the average skimmer to connect, but as a side-thought, perhaps we should look at it as this marking the beginning of the experiment, rather than the end.<p>I think the idea is cool and if it can be extended to private applications such as medical and critical, all while lowering costs and increasing access to the general public, that’d be great.<p>But reading this left me with more questions than answers

Planes are already fully automatic. Not just in cruise control, but some planes have extra functionality you can pay for to automate takeoff and landing. I’m not sure if they are safer than a human pilot landing in all conditions but I imagine it won’t be long until they are basically equivocal in abilities. Whether or not the role of the pilot continues to exist probably depends more on unions and regulations than if the technology is sufficient, like many jobs in a similar obsolete-yet-perpetuated state today.

Autonomous aircraft require a more stringent MEL - the list of aircraft systems that must be working before you take off, and a more stringent reading of NOTAMS - the list of problems in the air and at the airport that the pilots need to be aware of.<p>A more stringent MEL means tougher maintenance requirements, which means more mechanic hours per flight hour (in aggregate, on average).<p>As far as I know, it&#x27;s difficult to get a computer to read all the NOTAMS in an automated way that will consistently produce a useable plan with no missed problems. It would need to have no false positives and no false negatives. What am I allowed, What am I forbidden.<p>Of course people have the same problem, but they have problem solving skills and can decide what weight to give any issue that crops up.<p>There are also a lot of assumptions about what a pilot can work around that will have to be understood.

The article said 2800 miles of testing? Was that a misprint - a single one-way trip from San Francisco to NY is about that distance? Does the FCC or the Air Force get final say in this maybe a little more testing? I AM aware there are drones so maybe a lot of that technology transfers over BUT then there should be a lot more than 2800 miles of flight time data applied no?

Accommodations for human pilots account for a small percentage of the mass and volume of a cargo plane, but I wonder how differently cargo planes might be designed if they went full drone.

I&#x27;ve never thought – though it&#x27;s obvious now – that if a drone is capable of flying remotely in the middle east, it&#x27;s just as capable of flying remotely in the US.<p>Legitimate qualms about drone strikes aside, it seems like a big step forward to not have to send a crew with a plane for cargo transportation. Hopefully this can be the case for private cargo transport, in time.

&gt;The U.S. Air Force has authorized San Francisco-based Xwing to transport time-sensitive cargo across California on autonomous aircraft.

Oddly enough the hardest part of this would be when it&#x27;s on the ground &#x27;driving&#x27;.<p>Though I also wonder how it takes ATC direction.

Are military drones not flying autonomously for at least part of the time already? I wonder how much incremental value there is for end to end autonomous vs remote operated flights where a human is involved just for tricky parts.

I mean I get the fully autonomous flight is interesting and should be pursued, buts laughable that this is billed as a cost savings. Of course flying a $2-3 million aircraft is going to be cheaper than flying a $100 million one, pilot cost is negligible in that equation