The Future of Flight: X-Wing's Autonomous Plane

As we watched in awe, a modified Cessna 208 Grand Caravan took to the skies, its ability to fly completely autonomously on full display. This plane is not just any ordinary aircraft, but an experimental vessel equipped with X-Wing Super Pilot's autonomous flight system. The system, dubbed "Superpilot," is a suite of software and hardware that can perceive the world around the plane, make decisions, control the plane, and communicate with human monitors on the ground.

The demonstration began with a manual takeoff, but with the push of a button, X-Wing's Auto flight system engaged Superpilot took over, guiding the aircraft through its automated mission. The pilot, Ryan, sat next to me, ready to intervene if anything went wrong, but I could sense that he was relieved to be out of the driving seat. As we flew towards our destination, Ryan explained how the Superpilot system gave the plane a major advantage over human pilots. "It's got a much better awareness of its surroundings," he said. "The autopilot is engaged really most of the time and it felt really smooth, really natural."

As we approached our landing site, Ryan took control, explaining the process that would happen when the Superpilot system was activated. The aircraft began its descent, flaps set to 10, pitch attitude adjusted, and then landed smoothly. As I experienced my first self-flying flight, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the technology on display.

The Potential for Change

Mark Pietti, founder of X-Wing, sees this technology as more than just a novelty - it's a game-changer for aviation. With a fleet of self-flying cargo planes, he believes that costs can be reduced and accessibility improved for small communities around the world. But the real potential lies in paving the way for autonomous passenger flights. "We think this technology is a job creator," Pietti said. "There might be some changes in the types of jobs that people have right now."

As we look to the future, it's clear that this technology will require significant regulatory hurdles to overcome before it can take off. But with companies like X-Wing pushing the boundaries of what's possible, it's hard not to get excited about the prospect of flying without a pilot. As Pietti said, "We want to know what you think would you take a flight in a self-flying plane? Let us know in the comments below."

The History of Elevators and Automation

It's interesting to note that this is not the first time we've seen technology revolutionize our daily lives. Think back to elevators - just a century ago, they were a novelty that required human operators on board. But as technology improved, so did the design of these vehicles. Today, we take them for granted, but it's amazing how much has changed in such a short amount of time.

We've also seen this phenomenon play out in manufacturing and manual labor. Robots have become increasingly common in factories and warehouses, taking over jobs that were once done by humans. But even as we've gotten used to seeing robots at work, there are still many careers that require years of specialized training - jobs like piloting an aircraft.

The Potential for Job Creators

As X-Wing takes its Superpilot technology to market, it's clear that the company sees itself not just as a disruptor, but also as a job creator. With a fleet of 35 aircraft already in operation around the U.S., they're looking to expand their operations and hire more remote operators and network operations experts.

But what does this mean for the types of jobs that people have? As Pietti said, "There might be some changes in the types of jobs that people have right now." The rise of autonomous vehicles could lead to new career paths emerging - perhaps ones that we can't even imagine yet. One thing is certain: this technology will require us to rethink our assumptions about work and employment.

A Fleet of Self-Flying Planes

X-Wing already operates a fleet of 35 aircraft that fly piloted cargo flights around the U.S. The company is hoping to have its Superpilot technology certified and in commercial operation by mid-2025. With this goal in mind, they're pushing forward with their plans to start regional cargo flights.

The landing sequence initiated, flaps set to 10, pitch attitude adjusted, and then landed smoothly. As I experienced my first self-flying flight, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the technology on display. The autopilot was engaged really most of the time, and it felt really smooth, really natural.

But for now, the Superpilot system is still in its experimental phase. Will we see it take to the skies soon? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: this technology has the potential to change the face of aviation forever.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enforeign this may look like a regular Cessna behind me but it's anything but this plane has the ability to fly completely autonomously now I'm about to take a ride and unless something really unexpected happens the safety pilot on board isn't going to touch the controls once autonomy is everywhere these days it can drive you to work deliver your lunch and secure your home but are you ready to let it fly our plane welcome to X-Wing a Bay Area startup that wants to put cargo flights in the sky with no Pilots this is an experimental Cessna 208 Grand Caravan modified with X-Wing super pilot autonomous flight system superpilot is a suite of software and Hardware that can perceive the world around the plane make decisions control the plane and communicate with human monitors on the ground so right now he's doing automated PreFlight checks with the system so the trim is being chipped the flaps are being checked I'm about to see how it all works by letting super pilot take me on a fully autonomous flight we began taxing to the runway in manual with the human pilot at the controls but with the push of a button X-Wing Auto flight system engaged superpilot takes over so we're an x-wing's fully autonomous plane Ryan the pilot is sitting right next to me but he's not going to do anything this plane is about to fly itself we're about to take off AirSpeed alive felt so natural looking if I didn't know what was going on I would think a human was flying This Plane yeah okay so we're actually flying uh an automated mission right now using FAA waypoints so we're going to fly to uh to intercept this Waypoint and we're climbing on up to uh to 3 000 feet as it's climbing it's using its uh its maximum uh torque available which is essentially power to uh to enable it to climb as quickly as possible autopilot Is Not A New Concept it's been around almost as long as planes some experts estimate as much as ninety percent of commercial flights are automated but takeoff is always manual since it would require a split second decision to abort most Landings are also done manually and even at cruising altitude it's the Pilot's responsibility to monitor conditions and take over any changes to the flight plan in all system the system is designed from the ground up to be able to detect identify any fault and keep flying throughout the mission Maxime gariel is x-wing's Chief technology officer he Ard his job to figure out what behaviors the plane needs to fly safely from Taxi to Landing the system can be broken down into three pieces the first piece is the auto flight system that allows the aircraft to fly as well as the taxi so it's really controlling all the control surfaces controlling the brakes I treading all the switches then the second portion is the perception system that allows the aircraft to see what's around to understand its surroundings and to make decisions and finally the third portion is the communication system so being able to communicate with atropy control with the ground control system that we have as well as with other Pilots the plane is full of sensors lidar camera radar all of these designed to help it detect other objects during taxiing takeoff landing and navigation oh there's the traffic right there finally see it visually if superpilot does detect another aircraft in the flight path the plane can automatically adjust its plan to avoid a potential Collision it's worth noting we weren't relying on the object avoidance technology during our demonstration that was done manually on the ground a human operator monitors the plane and the flight plan but if everything goes according to plan our Ground Control station operators don't honestly have to do that much we're mostly a radio operator at this point we are supervising our autonomous system and making sure that everything is healthy and all good to go and it's making smart choices about where it's going I'm not doing anything to interface with the airplane I'm only talking to other airplanes or air traffic control back at 3000 feet Ryan shows me how superpilot's Precision gives it a major advantage over human Pilots this is one of the displays that's integrated with the system so it kind of uh tells you the system is engaged in auto mode and then it tells you like the current indicated air speed and altitude you can see they're perfectly stabilized if I was flying the airplane it would be embarrassing I'd probably be all over the place but perfectly stabilizing Crews right now to be clear that is not a slight on his skills as a pilot yeah so the super pilot has a much better awareness of small changes that are required so it's very hard to be as precise and that translates into better efficiency that's right and also like just human fatigue like you can only focus so hard on something for so long excelling isn't planning on sending passengers on pilotless flights anytime soon Target is the cargo industry X-Wing CEO Mark pietti founded the company in 2016. he had started flying planes just a year before and saw what he calls the unfulfilled potential of aviation aircraft are amazing vehicles but the problem is they're hard to fly when you drive a car you kind of have a sense for the amount of grip the tire has on the road you can see obstacles relatively easily because they uh and then react to them fairly quickly when you're flying your aircraft you don't get any of these reference points you don't know how much wind there is out there you can't feel how fast the vehicle is flying and when you're looking to avoid other obstacles you have to spot them miles away Mark says a fleet of self-flying cargo planes can reduce costs and improve accessibility for small communities around the world but it could also be a stepping stone to help pave the way for autonomous passenger flights let's face it people are still getting used to the idea of letting their cars do the driving convincing them to take the pilot out of the cockpit at 30 000 feet will likely be even harder would you feel comfortable if I wasn't here or oh that's a great question I think you could look at it the same way people looked at elevators in a turn of last century I mean what would it take for me to get into an elevator without an operator a human operator on board well I don't know shoots you're looking back now you'd be like well that's silly why would you need a human to go help you press buttons on an elevator but back then this was very controversial our grandkids will get on vehicles and and we'll ask themselves well why did you ever need Pilots onboard these vehicles but what would that mean for the future Pilots of the world we've gotten used to seeing robots take over manual labor and manufacturing jobs but we like to think careers that require years of specialized training are generally protected from becoming automated still Ryan says he welcomes x-wing's autonomous planes once the technology has passed the regulatory process the company plans to start with regional cargo flights that most Pilots don't want the normal mission for this airplane is like fly from 5 a.m to 6 a.m the airplane sit there from 6 a.m to 6 p.m and then fly for one hour at the end of the day we actually think this technology is a job Creator as opposed to something that will take away jobs there might be some changes in the types of jobs that people have right there's going to be a lot of jobs for remote operators and network operation Network operation centers to supervise these fleets of uncrewed vehicles X-Wing already operates a fleet of 35 aircraft that fly piloted cargo flights around the U.S the company is hoping to have its super pilot technology certified and in commercial operation in mid-2025 Auto Land sequence initiated so it's starting the uh The Landing sequence so the flaps already went to 10 slowly facing the pitch attitude another beautiful Landing so now that I've experienced my first self-flying flight I have to say that it really didn't feel that much different than any other flight that I've been on I mean yes I did have a safety pilot sitting next to me who was ready to jump in and take the controls if anything did go wrong but the autopilot was engaged really most of the time and it felt really smooth really natural I really couldn't tell the difference between the autopilot and the manual pilot so it's not a matter of if but when this technology is coming so I want to know what you think would you take a flight in a self-flying plane let me know in the comments below if you enjoyed this video please don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to CNET for more like it\n"