Black Hawk helicopter wing its way without pilot on board [Watch]

In a major development before the autonomous flight, a Black Hawk helecopter took to the air without a pilot on board in the United States earlier this week.

The specially designed helecopter flew for around 30 minutes by the means of a simulated cityscape, avoiding imagined buildings ahead of carrying out a perfect landing, reported Reuters.

Here's the video:

During the first test flight on February 5, the unmanned Black Hawk took to the air at around 4,000 feet of altitude and at speeds of about 115 to 125 miles per hour. Another simulated autonomous flight was performed on Monday with the same helecopter, as per report by Popular Science.

The computer controlled helecopter was put to test as part of a US defence research program called Alias, and the tests took place at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

The program manager, identified as Stuart Young told Popular Science that this type of autonomous flight mechanics has three main objectives. The first is safety, to prevent disasters like crashing into terrain. The second is in-flight assistance, while the last one is cost cutting.

The program seeks to put “removable kits” into existing aircrafts to “promote the addition of high-level automation”, as reported The Next Web.

This will provide the Military operational flexibility, as it would basically allow them to operate aircraft at all times of the day or night, with and without pilots, and in a range of difficult circumstances, namely degraded visual environments.

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