DARPA Wants to Start Testing Autonomous Flight in Black Hawk Helicopters

DARPA Wants to Start Testing Autonomous Flight in Black Hawk Helicopters

5 years ago
Anonymous $L9wC17otzH

http://www.newsweek.com/darpa-wants-start-testing-autonomous-flight-black-hawk-helicopters-1202976

The government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will begin testing its latest autonomous flight system in Black Hawk helicopters next year. The Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) was successfully tested in a S-76B commercial helicopter in Virginia last month, and as a result, engineers are now starting to integrate the system into one of the Army’s most recognized aircrafts.

The test flight took place in Fort Eustis in mid-October, with Lieutenant Colonel Carl Ott, chief of Flight Test for the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center's Aviation Development Directorate carrying out maneuvers using the ALIAS system. He operated the helicopter using a tablet and “control interceptors.”