Air traffic control, automatically

Fighter pilots will one day be able to control entire squadrons of uncrewed combat aircraft as well as their own plane, following successful flight demonstrations of a multi-aircraft remote control system in UK airspace.

In addition to cutting the number of pilots risked in military operations, the remote control system could one day also be used to auto-land hijacked planes. Or they might allow lone pilots to orchestrate complex search and rescue operations.

This is not as new as it would seem. Just today I was in a meeting discussing how we might see unmanned aerial vehicles flying in U.S. airspace and how cargo planes could become pilotless. This demonstration is one step to seeing those ideas become a reality.