Will Self-Flying Planes Transform the Skies? Imagine boarding an aircraft, taking your seat and looking towards the cockpit only to discover there is nobody there. No captain greeting passengers, no co-pilot checking instruments and no human hands taking control during take-off or landing. Instead, sophisticated computers, sensors and artificial intelligence are responsible for getting you safely to your destination. It sounds like something from a science-fiction film. But autonomous aircraft are already flying in the real world, raising a question that aviation can no longer ignore: could self-flying planes transform the skies? The answer may eventually be yes, although the journey from experimental aircraft to passenger airliners without pilots is likely to be long and complicated. The age of autonomous flight has already begun Self-flying aircraft are not merely theoretical machines being designed in laboratories. Autonomous aviation is already being tested f...