MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -Reliable Robotics, an aircraft automation systems company in Mountain View, California, announced last month’s successful flight of a Cessna 208B Caravan with no one on board. The company says that it was a first for aviation. A remote pilot supervised the uncrewed aircraft from Reliable’s control center 50 miles away.
The Reliable autonomous flight system enables the aircraft to be remotely operated by a pilot on the ground. The company says this improves safety by fully automating the aircraft through all phases of operation including taxi, takeoff, and landing. Reliable’s system is aircraft agnostic and utilizes multiple layers of redundancy and advanced navigation technology to achieve the levels of integrity and reliability necessary for uncrewed flight. The system will prevent controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) and loss of control in flight (LOC-I), which account for most fatal aviation accidents.
The Cessna Caravan is designed and manufactured by Textron Aviation Inc. Reliable Robotics has been collaborating with Textron Aviation, which includes the Beechcraft, Cessna, and Hawker brands.
The Caravan, and other regional cargo aircraft like it, serve an essential role connecting communities and businesses across the United States and around the globe. With a useful load of over 3,000 pounds, and a take-off performance to operate from shorter runways, these aircraft deliver time-sensitive shipments to many places that would otherwise not have next-day or same-day service. Remote piloting will allow even more areas to benefit from this critical service.
ASL Aviation Holdings is a global aviation services company with airlines based in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, and has been working with Reliable Robotics since 2022 to explore bringing advanced aircraft automation into its operations. ASL operates a fleet of over 160 aircraft and provides cargo services for the world’s leading express parcel integrators and eCommerce platforms. Reliable Robotics is an original member of ASL’s CargoVision forum of companies involved in pioneering new aviation and propulsion technologies.
Reliable Robotics and the U.S. Air Force are working to leverage the significant progress on remote piloting for the Cessna Caravan to jointly examine how this commercially derived technology can be applied to large multi-engine aircraft for cargo logistics, aerial refueling and other missions. Reliable has been working under a series of contracts with the Air Force since 2021.
“This monumental aviation achievement is a great example of how AFWERX accelerates agile and affordable capability transitions for the world's greatest Air Force," said Col. Elliott Leigh, AFWERX Director and Chief Commercialization Officer for the Department of the Air Force. “This milestone accelerates dual-use uncrewed flight opportunities, increasing aviation safety and enabling us to bring a broad range of autonomous military capabilities into denied environments.”
The FAA formally accepted the certification plan for Reliable’s autonomous flight system in June of 2023. The certification plan leverages existing regulations for normal and transport category aircraft, and does not require any special conditions or exemptions.
