UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters performed a 30-minute uncrewed flight at US Army headquarters in Fort Campbell, Kentucky on February 5, 2022, in an announcement this week from DARPA, the U.S. Department of Defense’s experimental research agency. Later, another fully autonomous flight was carried out.
The helicopter performed autonomous flight using a technology known as the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS). DARPA conducted a “supervised” autonomous test flight with Sikorsky last year, but the pilots were still inside the helicopter in case something went wrong. Now, however, helicopters have been able to complete their flight with very little human intervention.
You can watch the flight of the unmanned Black Hawk helicopter in the video below:
DARPA had previously used ALIAS technology on fixed-wing aircraft. Looking ahead, this type of autonomous flight technology is predicted to revolutionize the battlefields of tomorrow. “With reduced workloads, pilots can focus on mission management rather than flying the helicopter,” said Stuart Young, program manager for DARPA’s Office of Tactical Technology. “This combination of autonomous software and hardware will make flying both smarter and safer. ”
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