Airbus has been doing research and engineering that may make that possible, although for now it’s officially to improve operations of piloted planes. For now.
The planemaker has announced that it has alreadyd completed eight take-offs on autopilot, using vision-based equipment on the plane, not devices controlling it from the ground. Airbus also said that pilotless taxiing and landing trials will start by midyear.
Two pilots ride along on each flight, just in case. One of them, Yann Beaufils, told reporters that “We moved the throttle levers to the takeoff setting and we monitored the aircraft. It started to move and accelerate automatically maintaining the runway centre line, at the exact rotation speed as entered in the system. The nose of the aircraft began to lift up automatically to take the expected take-off pitch value and a few seconds later we were airborne.”
Airbus’s Autonomous Taxi, Take-off and Landing (ATTOL) project is not its only ‘blue sky’ initiative. It also has a joint project in the works with Paris Metro operator RATP to explore the viability of vertical take-off electric air taxis in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics. But with a short timeline, that one may be, pardon the pun, “up in the air.”
