AI is learning to fly airplanes — and aviation is starting to embrace it
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CNN — As the Merlin system lines us up on final approach, it starts a gradual descent toward runway 34 and jockeys the controls to stay on the flight path, despite a slight crosswind, all the way to touchdown.
“It’s a challenging problem for the automation,” test pilot Diamond says to me as we are taxiing back to Merlin’s hangar. “But once you crack it, it makes things much easier on the pilot.”
Merlin underscores fully pilotless passenger flights are still far away. “We’re not flipping a switch to uncrewed airplanes,” George said. “This is about putting AI alongside human pilots and building trust.”
The company says it has completed hundreds of test flights as it works toward certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. Those standards are among the strictest in transportation, often requiring years of testing and redundancy analysis before new systems are approved.
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