Autonomous flight

UK company Autonomous Flight has been working on eVTOL concepts for some years now, with several prototypes already flown. Now the company has revealed a six-seat air shuttle called the Y6S Plus that uses an interesting coaxial tricopter design.

China's air mobility company EHang has added another location to its autonomous air taxi roster with the launch of an aerial sightseeing trial in partnership with real estate company Greenland Hong Kong.

EHang is on a mission to get its autonomous air taxis into the air around the globe. After flying into Spain earlier this year, the air mobility firm has now been granted its first trial flight permit in the European Union – but it's not in Seville.

Boeing has successfully carried out tests of its autonomous flight platform involving five high-performance, pilotless surrogate jets operating as a full team of five at speeds of up to 167 mph.

Looking to make its mark in the world of space launches is US-based firm Aevum, which has just unveiled a massive drone called the Ravn X that is designed to act as an autonomous, airborne launch system for small satellites.

Chinese air mobility company EHang has completed three test flights in South Korea to show off the passenger transport, emergency response and air tourism potential of its all-electric two-passenger autonomous aerial vehicle, the EHang 216.

Although there are now a few different crop-spraying multicopter drones, fixed-wing drones are faster and have a longer battery range. That's where the recently US-certified autonomous electric Pelican crop duster comes into the picture.

When we hear about VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft, we usually think of passenger-carrying "air taxis." The autonomous Nuuva, however, is being designed to give cargo-carrying helicopters a run for their money.

Autopilot has been around longer than you think – the first daredevil public demos happened back in 1914. But today's airliners still need pilots, and Airbus has only recently completed testing on the first autonomous taxi, takeoff and landing system.

So far, much of the development focus of China's EHang has been on providing air taxi and air tourism services, but now the air mobility company has launched a firefighting version of its two-person multi-rotor flying pod.

Airbus Helicopters' VSR700 unmanned aerial system (UAS) prototype has flown autonomously for the first time. At a drone test center near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, the pilotless rotorcraft performed a 10-minute free flight.

The first aerial showdown between a human fighter pilot and an autonomous aircraft is slated for July 2021, according to a fascinating interview with the outgoing Director of the US Department of Defense's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC).