A flight without human hands
A Cessna Caravan took off from Buchanan Field, California, and reached the coast of North Carolina after a 3,200-mile zigzag route, crossing busy airspace and skirting thunderstorms. According to Joby Aviation, which carried out the project, no human hand touched the controls for the entire duration of the trip: a safety pilot was on board, but never had to intervene. The company considers the event an important milestone for autonomous aviation.
AI in air traffic control systems
On September 27, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy presented on X the SMART tool, an artificial intelligence-based air traffic management system, calling it a turning point for reducing delays. Less than three weeks later, on Friday the 13th, the FAA ordered a national groundstop that upended airline schedules around the world. The administration stated that there was no evidence of a cyberattack or any indication that SMART was involved in the communications failure behind the decision. However, asked about the possibility of ruling out an AI malfunction with certainty, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that at the moment nothing was certain.
Technological speed versus industry caution
The entry of AI into aviation has its roots in the early 2000s, when improvements in batteries and microelectronics made drones more capable and affordable. In 2007 the federal government launched the NextGen program, which among other things required adoption of ADS-B by 2020, a system that broadcasts aircraft position and route by radio. Since then, Amazon and Walmart have announced drone delivery plans, while Google tested Project Wing in Australia and Virginia. Electric air taxi startups, such as Joby with the S4 model, promised short, low-cost trips, but commercial launch dates have been repeatedly postponed.
A recently retired FAA employee commented that introducing these technologies so quickly would be a disaster, calling the situation a Pandora's box. Lawyer Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, explained that aviation regulation prioritizes reliability because the consequences of an error are serious, and that certification standards require proof of safety, which normally entails gradual rather than radical changes.
The pilot question and prospects
In Europe, Airbus and Dassault had asked EASA to evaluate airliners with a single pilot in the cockpit, with automated systems performing the copilot's work. The European Cockpit Association protested, arguing that this would remove an independent professional from the cockpit, and last year the agency shelved the plan. Meanwhile, the FAA began in 2023 granting waivers for drone flights beyond operators' visual line of sight, and by the end of the year could make the change permanent. Amazon aims to extend drone delivery service to 500 locations by the end of the year, while Walmart plans 270 by 2027. Joby, for its part, in April conducted the first point-to-point eVTOL flight in New York, from JFK to three heliports in Manhattan.
According to Greg Bowles, chief policy officer at Joby, demonstration flights are only the initial phase of the S4 operational launch: demonstrations with non-paying passengers will follow, then with paying passengers. However, it remains to be clarified what this path concretely means, what authorizations are required, and what independent checks have been carried out on autonomous guidance systems and tools such as SMART.
