Due to FAA rules, the experimental aircraft is not allowed to fly autonomously over densely populated areas, so the pilot had to manually control it during our first takeoff. That morning, we originally departed from Xwing’s hangar at Buchanan Field Airport in Concord, California, just northeast of San Francisco. However, I did see Di Francesco manually fly the airplane earlier during our flight demonstration. But the Superpilot worked exactly as planned during my demonstration flight, and no pilot intervention was necessary during the autonomous landing and subsequent takeoff at Yolo County Airport. The role of the onboard pilot-in this case, Xwing’s safety pilot, Gabriele Di Francesco-is to supervise the autonomous flight, and to take control of the aircraft only on the off chance that there’s a problem with the Superpilot. Inside Xwing's mobile mission control center at Yolo County Airport, Xwing’s flight test operations manager, Craig Milliard, monitors the autonomous flights. However, during our demonstration, adjustments to the planned flight path were all done remotely by Xwing’s ground controllers, located in a small trailer at the airport. The San Francisco-based company says its Superpilot system can automatically detect and avoid hazards, such as other aircraft, both in the air and on the ground. The Superpilot combines data from those sensors with real-time airspace, airport, weather, and terrain map data to create a comprehensive view of its environment. The aircraft is equipped with dozens of sensors, as well as cameras, radar, and LIDAR systems mounted under the aircraft’s wing. Xwing's Superpilot uses a combination of software and hardware to control the aircraft while providing complete situational awareness. The company has been flight-testing its Superpilot autonomous flight system for the last two years under an experimental certificate for research and development purposes, and it achieved the first fully autonomous gate-to-gate flight in February 2021. Rather than have a safety pilot on board, as there was during my demonstration flight, Xwing will have ground controllers supervising multiple simultaneous flights from the company's mission control center. Xwing aims to operate a fleet of these modified Cessnas under a supplemental type certificate, which will allow it to use the unpiloted aircraft for autonomous cargo delivery flights.
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