Glimpse into the future: Black Hawk helicopter flies without pilot for the first time | Watch

In a first, a Black Hawk helicopter made a fully autonomous flight without a pilot onboard at the US Army installation at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The first test flight took place on on February 5, and later on February 7. It was conducted in partnership between Lockheed Martin Sikorsky and the Defence Armed Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as per a press release.

DARPA shared a photograph of the helicopter and wrote, “It might look disconcerting to see a @LockheedMartin Martin @Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter flying itself…but, don’t worry, we’ve got this! DARPA’s ALIAS technology just enabled the first ever flight of this iconic chopper…with nobody onboard.” An impressed netizens had a caveat, “Good luck with the testing! Please make sure there are strong safety features, especially on the weapons.”

A video shared by Reuters on Twitter showed the helicopter hovering sans a pilot. The helicopter lands smoothly without any glitches in the video. The DARPA Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) enables high levels of automation into existing aircraft and reduces crew operations.

“With reduced workloads pilots can focus on mission management instead of the mechanics,” Stuart Young, program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office was quoted as saying in the press release. “This unique combination of autonomy software and hardware will make flying both smarter and safer,” he added.