Air Force's New Robot Can Fly Any Plane and Turn It Into an Autonomous Drone

Well, that didn’t take long.

ROBOpilot Crashes After Inaugural Flight

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s ROBOpilot is now unflyable after a mishap that occurred during an Aug. 22 experiment, a service spokesman told Air Force Magazine on Aug. 23. “This is exactly why we have experimentation programs,” AFRL Commander Maj. Gen. William Cooley said in a release. “We are here to provide cutting-edge technology to the warfighter, meaning at a certain point in the process we need to take calculated risks to move forward. We learn important lessons from every experiment and I’m certain the ROBOpilot team will study this data and chart an appropriate course going forward.” ROBOpilot, a joint Air Force venture with DZYNE Technologies, can be inserted into a manned aircraft to temporarily convert it into a robotically flown version. The system completed a successful maiden flight Aug. 9 in a 1968 Cessna 206.
 
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