{"id":694464,"date":"2026-05-25T23:19:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/694464\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T23:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:19:25","slug":"ai-is-learning-to-fly-airplanes-and-aviation-is-starting-to-embrace-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/694464\/","title":{"rendered":"AI is learning to fly airplanes \u2014 and aviation is starting to embrace it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quonset State Airport, Rhode Island\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n The small Cessna Caravan accelerates down the runway and climbs into the air, all while the pilot beside me keeps his hands off the controls.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cLet\u2019s see those jazz hands,\u201d jokes Tim Burns, chief technology officer at startup Merlin Labs, over the airplane\u2019s intercom from a back seat.\n <\/p>\n

\n On this flight, test pilot Matt Diamond in the left seat beside me is not controlling the airplane at all. Many of the normal tasks of piloting are instead being handled by artificial intelligence.\n <\/p>\n

\n I am, legally speaking, a test subject \u2014 even the airplane is labeled \u201cexperimental.\u201d The Merlin Pilot system handles much more than a traditional autopilot, using a natural language processing model to listen to instructions from a mock air traffic controller and responding over the radio using a computerized female voice. Test pilot Diamond says, \u201cAuthorize,\u201d and the airplane begins turning to a new course.\n <\/p>\n

\n As a pilot myself \u2014 and admittedly a bit of a control freak \u2014 surrendering control to a computer did not come naturally. But the demonstration is an important one as more aviation companies are looking to AI to usher in a new evolution in air travel by using it to automate tasks for pilots and perhaps one day enable fully autonomous flights.\n <\/p>\n

\"Test<\/p>\n

\"Merlin<\/p>\n

\n Our flight is taking place as airlines worldwide are facing a growing pilot shortage. Boeing estimates that carriers will need more than 600,000 new pilots over the next two decades. At the same time, aviation safety officials are confronting increasing pressure on an already strained air traffic control system following a series of high-profile close calls and deadly accidents in recent years.\n <\/p>\n

\n The push toward AI-assisted aviation is also gaining support in Washington. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has promoted artificial intelligence tools as part of the Trump administration\u2019s broader push to modernize the nation\u2019s aging air traffic control system.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are never going to outsource the national airspace to AI tools,\u201d Duffy told CNN in a recent interview. \u201cControllers are going to control the airspace, but we can make their jobs easier.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Duffy said the administration sees AI as a way to reduce workload for controllers and improve efficiency across increasingly crowded airspace.\n <\/p>\n

\n Merlin argues artificial intelligence could eventually help address some of the same problems in the cockpit. \u201cEighty percent of accidents in aviation are still caused by human error,\u201d Merlin CEO Matthew George told CNN. \u201cIf we can reduce that, that\u2019s a pretty useful way to spend our time.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The idea remains controversial. Commercial aviation has steadily added automation for decades, leading to today\u2019s fly-by-wire systems in which computers interpret pilot inputs even during manual flight.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n \u201cModern cockpits have quite a bit of automation already, but the automation is within a narrowly defined scope,\u201d said Mykel Kochenderfer, whose research at Stanford University focuses on autonomous systems and aviation safety. Kochenderfer said newer AI-assisted systems are designed to handle a broader range of unexpected situations than traditional rule-based automation.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur experience shows this can be a very promising way to enhance safety,\u201d he said, \u201cbut the industry has a long way to go to further harden the technology and establish the trust required for acceptance.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Changing the minds of pilots might not be easy. Current in-flight automation systems place the pilot at the center, allowing them to intervene when necessary.\n <\/p>\n

\n Capt. Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association which represents more than 79,000 pilots in the United States and Canada, says automation and AI should support pilots, not replace them.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTechnological advancements can improve aviation safety, but they will never be a substitute for the pilots on an aircraft,\u201d Ambrosi said in a statement to CNN. \u201cThe most important safety feature on every airline flight will always be two well-trained and rested pilots on the flightdeck.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Merlin<\/p>\n

\n Merlin underscores fully pilotless passenger flights are still far away. \u201cWe\u2019re not flipping a switch to uncrewed airplanes,\u201d George said. \u201cThis is about putting AI alongside human pilots and building trust.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n 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.\n <\/p>\n

\n The military may provide the system\u2019s first major proving ground. Merlin recently secured a contract worth more than $100 million with the US Air Force to eventually bring the technology to C-130 cargo planes.\n <\/p>\n

\n 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.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s a challenging problem for the automation,\u201d test pilot Diamond says to me as we are taxiing back to Merlin\u2019s hangar. \u201cBut once you crack it, it makes things much easier on the pilot.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quonset State Airport, Rhode Island\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The small Cessna Caravan accelerates down the runway and climbs into the air,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-694464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}