U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall took a history-making flight in an AI-controlled F-16 on May 3, 2024. U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall rode in the cockpit of a fighter jet on Friday, which flew over the desert in California and was controlled by artificial intelligence. Last month, Kendall announced his plans to fly in an AI-controlled F-16 to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee's defense panel, while speaking about the future of air warfare being dependent on autonomously operated drones. On Friday, the senior Air Force leader followed through with his plans, making what could be one of the biggest advances in military aviation since stealth planes were introduced in the early 1990s. Kendall flew to Edwards Air Force Base – the same desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier – to watch and experience AI flight in real time. US MILITARY'OUT OF TIME' IN PUSH AGAINST ADVERSARIES' MODERNIZATION, AIR FORCE SECRETARY SAYS The X-62A VISTA aircraft, an experimental AI-enabled Air Force F-16 fighter jet, takes off on Thursday, May 2, 2024, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

While some kinds of artificial intelligence (AI) spend time chatting with people online, others are piloting jet fighters. Aerospace company Lockheed Martin recently revealed its VISTA X-62A tactical test aircraft was flown completely autonomously for the first time. The test aircraft, essentially a modified F-16D, was flown for a staggering 17 hours across 12 different flights above Edwards Air Force Base in California. The computer combined two different autonomous systems to pilot the plane: the Model Following Algorithm (MFA) and System for Autonomous Control of the Simulation (SACS). It's not clear exactly what kinds of activities were peformed by the AI, but it's safe to say it was a little bit more than an average flight on autopilot.

Nasa has flown a large, remotely piloted predator drone equipped with detect-and-avoid technologies through the national airspace system for the first time without a safety chase plane following it. The space agency says the'milestone' flight over California moves the US closer to normalising unmanned aircraft operations in airspace used by commercial and private pilots. The test used a non-military version of the Air Force's MQ-9 Predator B called Ikhana that is 36 feet (11 meters) long and has a 66-foot (20-meter) wingspan. It paves the way for large remotely-piloted aircraft to be used in all kinds of services, from fighting forest fires to providing emergency search and rescue operations, according to Nasa. The flight took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California and entered controlled air space almost immediately.

A test version of a'mini space shuttle' has soared over the Mojave Desert in a major step forward for the mini shuttle. Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Dream Chaser was carried to an altitude of 10,000 feet by the civilian version of the Army's CH-47 Chinook, and then dropped to glide to the ground and land on a runway at Edwards Air Force Base in a test of its autonomous landing systems. The uncrewed Dream Chaser made a smooth landing at Edwards Air Force Base during the free-flight test at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, NASA officials said in a statement Spot the shuttle: Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Dream Chaser was carried to an altitude of 10,000 feet by the civilian version of the Army's CH-47 Chinook, and then dropped to glide to the ground and land on a runway at Edwards Air Force Base in a test of its autonomous landing systems. The mini shuttle made a perfect lading at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The Dream Chaser is preparing to deliver cargo to the International Space Station beginning in 2019.

At 100million a pop, you might expect F-35 fighter jets to take-off at the first time of asking. But the life of a test pilot is not that simple, with dozens of computer systems to calibrate and reset before the Air Force's most sophisticated plane can even taxi to the runway. Defense News got a glimpse of how testing F-35s works during a visit to Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. Major Raven LeClair, of the 461st flight test squadron, begins his day at around 10am by checking the plane for any issues. It immediately became clear that the day's testing would not pass without a hitch, with an alarm sounding as soon as he got to the aircraft.