Thanks to Athena’s Damage Tolerance and Autonomous Landing Solution, an unmanned FA-18 model has demonstrated its ability to survive an in-flight attack and to safely land missing 60% of of its right wing.
The major problem with in-flight failures or battle damage is that pilots often panic in the crisis and can’t calculate the necessary action required to stabilise the craft.
The project is sponsored by the Pentagon’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Rockwell Collins’ Automatic Supervisory Adaptive Control technology reacts to the new aircraft configuration after battle damage and regains baseline performance to keep the plane flying.
The technology could be used in all military aircraft as well as commercial airliners to safely land an aircraft after a catastrophic failure.
The aircraft makes a safe autonomous landing using its internal Inertial Navigation System and Global Positioning System (INSGPS).
Sources:
Engadget
Rockwell Collins video
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