Will self-flying planes transform the skies?

Will self-flying planes transform the skies?

A small crop-spraying plane is flying scarily low to the ground in California's San Joaquin Valley, with little risk to humans. The pilotless aircraft belongs to Pyka, where Russ Marotzke works as a flight test engineer.

Pyka's crop dusters are used in the US and Brazil, and over an alfalfa field in California's San Joaquin Valley, a small crop-spraying plane is flying scarily low to the ground. There's little risk to humans though, as the plane is pilot-free.

","body": "Autonomous crop-spraying aircraft are leading the way in pilot-free flying.

Pyka's crop sprayers are fully electric, with its battery in the nose. It can fly for about 35 minutes and carries up to 300L of spray in a tank in its middle.

Pyka aims to scale up production from around two dozen planes a year currently to 1000 by 2030. Each sells for $550,000, with customers trained to operate them.

Windracers wants to launch an autonomous cargo service in Shetland and Orkney. Its aircraft are designed to carry goods to remote areas, and it plans to use AI-powered cameras to detect and classify objects.

Reliable Robotics is retrofitting planes with its autonomous tech, backed by Boeing's investment arm. Reliable has added forward-looking air-to-air radar to detect other aircraft more than eight kilometers ahead, with software that follows fixed rules to decide how the plane should respond.

Merlin Labs is working on a similar system for military aircraft, using generative AI trained on thousands of hours of recorded exchanges to interpret instructions and respond itself. Merlin plans to reduce pilots in stages, from two to one and eventually none.

Pyka and Windracers are building aircraft from scratch, arguing this allows autonomy to be designed in from the outset and the aircraft tailored to the job. Others are retrofitting existing larger planes.

The companies also differ in their approach to AI. Reliable is avoiding it altogether, arguing it would complicate certification. Merlin, meanwhile, is taking a far more AI-centric approach.

The divide is evident in so-called detect and avoid systems. One of autonomous flight's biggest challenges is replicating a pilot's ability to spot and maneuver safely around other aircraft and obstacles, and there is virtually no margin for error.

With no perfect solution yet, companies are adding different sensor systems as well as duplicating those that already come as standard to provide extra back-up. Reliable has added forward-looking air-to-air radar to detect other aircraft more than eight kilometers ahead, with software that