One of the most popular army helicopters has learned to fly without a crew. Yesterday, February 9, the press service of the Agency for Advanced Defense Projects (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense announced the first fully autonomous flight of the UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter.
DARPA indicates that the experimental UH-60A is equipped with an ALIAS system. The pilot activated the automatic mode and left the cockpit. After that, the helicopter independently underwent pre-flight training, took to the sky and made a half-hour autonomous flight and landing under the supervision of the operator.
Fully unmanned flight of the UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter
This is not the first flight of the UH-60A under the control of the ALIAS system, but for the first time the car flew without a single person inside. The unmanned version of the Black Hawk is powered by fly-by-wire technology, which is a development of the Sikorsky MATRIX development and part of the ALIAS project. Sikorsky points out that the development can be used in any combination: with two pilots, with one pilot, or without people in the control cabin at all. Autonomous flight can be programmed in advance or controlled by the operator remotely.
