Autonomous flight has the potential to deliver increased fuel savings, reduce the operating costs of airlines, and support pilots in their strategic decision-making and mission management. At Airbus, we are building certifiable, safe and secure autonomy systems and programmes to power the next generation of commercial aircraft applications.
Our autonomous flight projects
ATTOL
The Autonomous Taxi, Take-off and Landing (ATTOL) project leveraged computer-vision technologies and techniques to successfully complete fully autonomous tests (taxi, take off, approach and landing) using a commercial aircraft.
CONNECT
This enhanced, multi-crew operation enables the crew to better organise their presence in the cockpit during cruise phase. Pilots can thus achieve a better balance between working and resting time, optimise fatigue management on long-range flights, and concentrate on the most strategic tasks to enhance safety.
Disruptive Cockpit (DISCO)
This enhanced cockpit is designed to enable single-pilot operations for new aircraft.
Wayfinder
This Acubed project builds scalable, certifiable autonomy systems that power self-piloted aircraft applications throughout Airbus, from small urban aerial vehicles to large commercial aircraft.
Vertex
Through this project, autonomous features are introduced to the helicopters Flightlab. These technologies aim to simplify mission preparation and management, reduce helicopter pilot workload, and further increase safety.
Latest news
Innovation
Airbus concludes ATTOL with fully autonomous flight tests
Following an extensive two-year flight test programme, Airbus has successfully concluded its Autonomous Taxi, Take-Off and Landing (ATTOL) project.
Innovation
Is autonomy the future of aerial mobility?
Advanced computer vision and machine learning—from sensors to cameras—are rapidly enabling major advances in the development of autonomous technologies in aircraft. In the years to come, autonomy could help the aviation industry to mitigate pilot shortages and safely meet the growing demand in commercial air travel.
Innovation
Airbus demonstrates first fully automatic vision-based take-off
Airbus has successfully performed the first fully automatic vision-based take-off using an Airbus Family test aircraft at Toulouse-Blagnac airport. The test crew comprising of two pilots, two flight test engineers and a test flight engineer took off initially at around 10:15 am on 18 December and conducted a total of 8 take-offs over a period of four and a half hours.
