The Sikorski S-70, which is the civilian designation of the machine, is equipped with the ALIAS system, which allows you to choose between a manned flight and an autonomous flight depending on the risk or unexpected events during the operation. The system was created in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense Agency for Advanced Research Projects (DARPA).
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The machine was tested at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. The Lockheed Martin armory, to which Sikorski belongs, stated that the flight lasted about thirty minutes. It was programmed as a flight in an urban environment, where a helicopter flying at normal speed avoided imaginary buildings, while the route changed during the flight.
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Then the machine performed a number of turns and landed perfectly. Then the system returned to control by the crew who boarded it and drove the helicopter.
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Black Hawk in unmanned flight
Foto: Lockheed Martin
The ALIAS system, which is also installed in transport and military aircraft, is intended to facilitate the work of the crew and increase safety. But the US military is going even further. Unmanned helicopters also appear on battlefields, where they supply advanced units. Already during the war in Afghanistan, an unmanned version of the Kaman K-MAX helicopter has been tested since 2012 while supplying soldiers at the front. Its civilian unmanned version, in turn, is used by firefighters in risky interventions that would endanger the crew.
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The US military has long used drones, which it experimented with since World War II. At the turn of the sixties and seventies, they were used in reconnaissance over Vietnam. However, with the development of computer technology, the use of drones has expanded;
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