June 9, 2007:
Last month, the U.S. Navy
successfully completed another test of its UAV carrier landing software. This
time, the software was installed in a two-seater F-18F. The software was
allowed to get the aircraft to within 420 feet of the carrier deck, at which
point a pilot took over and aborted the landing. The software has been tested,
in a UAV, landing on a carrier sized airfield. But landing on a carrier at sea
is a much more complex piece of work. The testing required for an actual
robotic carrier landing will take another few years. UAVs and aircraft have
been landing completely under software
control for over a decade. But doing a software controlled landing on an
aircraft carrier is the ultimate challenge for automatic landing software.