Today, Aurora Flight Services announced that they have successfully demonstrated fully autonomous takeoffs and landings in their Cessna 337 aircraft. The flights were conducted with a safety pilot and test engineer on board near the company’s Manassas, Virginia headquarters. The company manufactures state-of-the-art unmanned aerial systems and components for the scientific research, defense and homeland security markets. You can see a YouTube video of the aircraft, N427AU, taking off from Warrenton, Virginia.
several future Aurora projects, including Orion, their high-altitude, long-endurance technology demonstrator. Orion is a liquid hydrogen fueled, high-altitude platform designed to stay aloft for more than 100 hours at a time. It’s being designed for military applications, including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), and for earth science applications such as high altitude, high resolution weather observation. Aurora is the prime contractor for Orion on a team that includes Boeing.
Other Applications
While initially demonstrated on a General Aviation aircraft, it’s unlikely that the technology will find any immediate applications in GA. However, many technologies, such as GPS and glass cockpits, were initially developed for the military but later becoming commonplace in GA aircraft. So it’s not hard to imagine the technology finding its way into GA aircraft.
The system could presumably be used as a backup system if a pilot were to become incapacitated. In two events earlier this year, one in a privately owned King Air and another in a commercial trans-Atlantic flight, the pilot died and the plane was successfully landed. In the former case, a pilot who was not rated in multiengine aircraft landed the plane. In the later case, two fully qualified crewmembers were on board to land the plane.
The system also has interesting implications for staffing of military UAV programs. Currently, many Air Force pilots who expected to be flying manned aircraft find themselves sitting in trailers and commanding the flight of unmanned aircraft. If UAVs were equipped with full autoland capability, it’s not hard to imagine future UAVs being flown by non-pilots—though that is purely speculation on my part.
About Aurora Flight Services
Aurora Flight Services was founded by company President John Langford, who I met a number of times when he was a MIT student, as we had a close mutual friend. Even at that time he talked about his desire to design and build cutting-edge, high-altitude aircraft. Prior to founding Aurora, John managed the Daedalus human-powered aircraft project, which set a world record. In April, 1988, the aircraft flew 74 miles from Crete, Greece to the island of Santorini in just under 4 hours. I haven’t seen John in many years, but wish him well in this and his many other ventures.
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