Automated flights might sound like a thing of science fiction, but they may be closer to reality than you’d think.

Toulouse, France is known by some as the ‘aviation capital of Europe’ and it’s here that Airbus is testing automated flight.

BBC Click’s Shiona McCallum explores the future of air travel.

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Toulouse is 1 of France's most historic cities, known by the locals as La Ville Rose, or the Pink City.

It's also famed for its tasty food, given it's so close to the border with Spain.

We see it as certainly the aviation capital of Europe and maybe the world.

Our history in aviation in Toulouse goes back to the early 20th century and in fact only 300 metres from where we're sitting in this fabulous modern A350 is the hangar in which the French Concords were built in the 1960s.

And it's here that Airbus is testing its most recent technologies, focusing on 3 areas.

Firstly, the ability of an aeroplane to support the pilots by automating some of the functions required for a diversion in case of a problem during flight where the airplane needs to land quickly.

The second stream related to opening the possibilities for automatic landings at airports that are not equipped

for the automatic landings normally used today in service.

And the third stream was assisting pilots with taxing which sounds an easy task.

But on my screen here you can see the complexity of a busy airport.

So we wanted something that would assist with that and reduce the pilots workload during the taxi phase.

This might look like your average cockpit, but come with me and I'll show you we're in a demonstrator aircraft.

This is where the technology is all being tested, and The idea is that Airbus want to make their flights safer.

Known as the Dragonfly Project, based on the insect's ability to recognise certain locations, the team have been working on these futuristic capabilities for the last couple of years.

And just before the research closes, I've come to see what they've been doing, starting in the lab.

The aircraft was able to generate a new flight trajectory plan, and using artificial intelligence to generate a synthetic voice, the plane was able to communicate with both air traffic control and the airline operations control centre over the radio.

In a non-likely scenario where the crew is no longer able of controlling the aircraft, this function will take full control of the aircraft and automatically, in a safe manner, fly the aircraft down to an auto-land at a suitable runway for a diversion.

And so what were the main challenges with this work?

A challenge is to explain to the controllers exactly what will happen so that they can manage surrounding traffic.

We have performed 2 flights in the middle of the civil airspace, so with other commercial aircraft around us, and the French control authorities, they could fully understand the situation.

When it comes to assisting with landing, usually a plane connects with existing ground equipment technology, but the team here are trying to make it possible without that tech.

They say the renovations could allow the aircraft to land at any airport in the world.

And to assist, they're using a combination of normal cameras, infrared cameras and also radar technology, which the team says help them see behind the clouds.

They are just capturing the trajectory of the aircraft and then we use these pictures they say and we try to extract the information.

It will make the pilot comfortable on the fact that he's really aligned and he's really on the good path to go to the runway.

And that's what we have seen in the last flight test, that he's really able to be confident on the solution.

Philippe, you've been doing these Dragonfly tests for the last 2 years.

You've seen an improvement in the capabilities over that time?

Yeah, step by step we have reached a very good level of implementation which is I would say not very far from what could be a solution on the civil aircraft to make again the pilot life easier and safer.

It'll be up to Airbus to decide if they will implement these technologies on their fleets.

But not everyone in the aviation industry is a fan of the research that Airbus are doing.

But automation is supposed to support pilots to make decisions, not necessarily replace that cognitive decision-making that we do.

Those applications need to be looked at in terms of supporting a 2 crew flight deck.

We have multiple electrical systems for redundancy.

It seems crazy to me that we would look at replacing 1 pilot and the only redundancy for that pilot is going to be the automation.

What's your thoughts on aviation becoming fully automated?

We have no strategic objective to remove pilots from the cockpit.

But we will do whatever is safest for the overall safety and security of the aeroplane.

We're many, many years away from ever being able to contemplate a completely automatic aeroplane, I can assure you.

Fundamentally, all of this research means that probably in the not-too-distant future, you could find yourself on an airplane with a lot more automated features.

Well, that still feels like a long way away.


Speaker 0: Toulouse is 1 of France's most historic cities, known by the locals as La Ville Rose, or the Pink City. It's also famed for its tasty food, given it's so close to the border with Spain. There's culture, art and architecture. But there's also something else.

Speaker 1: We see it as certainly the aviation capital of Europe and maybe the world. Our history in aviation in Toulouse goes back to the early 20th century and in fact only 300 metres from where we're sitting in this fabulous modern A350 is the hangar in which the French Concords were built in the 1960s.

Speaker 2: And it's here that Airbus is testing its most recent technologies, focusing on 3 areas.

Speaker 3: Firstly, the ability of an aeroplane to support the pilots by automating some of the functions required for a diversion in case of a problem during flight where the airplane needs to land quickly. The second stream related to opening the possibilities for automatic landings at airports that are not equipped

Speaker 1: for the automatic landings normally used today in service. And the third stream was assisting pilots with taxing which sounds an easy task. But on my screen here you can see the complexity of a busy airport. So we wanted something that would assist with that and reduce the pilots workload during the taxi phase.

Speaker 0: Right. This might look like your average cockpit, but come with me and I'll show you we're in a demonstrator aircraft. This is where the technology is all being tested, and The idea is that Airbus want to make their flights safer.

Speaker 2: Known as the Dragonfly Project, based on the insect's ability to recognise certain locations, the team have been working on these futuristic capabilities for the last couple of years. And just before the research closes, I've come to see what they've been doing, starting in the lab.

Speaker 3: Airbus 590 to Lima. Diverting to airport Lima. Foxtrot. Bravo. Oscar.

Speaker 2: The aircraft was able to generate a new flight trajectory plan, and using artificial intelligence to generate a synthetic voice, the plane was able to communicate with both air traffic control and the airline operations control centre over the radio.

Speaker 4: In a non-likely scenario where the crew is no longer able of controlling the aircraft, this function will take full control of the aircraft and automatically, in a safe manner, fly the aircraft down to an auto-land at a suitable runway for a diversion.

Speaker 0: And so what were the main challenges with this work?

Speaker 4: A challenge is to explain to the controllers exactly what will happen so that they can manage surrounding traffic. We have performed 2 flights in the middle of the civil airspace, so with other commercial aircraft around us, and the French control authorities, they could fully understand the situation. We safely landed the aircraft. It was really an amazing feat.

Speaker 2: When it comes to assisting with landing, usually a plane connects with existing ground equipment technology, but the team here are trying to make it possible without that tech. They say the renovations could allow the aircraft to land at any airport in the world. And to assist, they're using a combination of normal cameras, infrared cameras and also radar technology, which the team says help them see behind the clouds.

Speaker 5: They are just capturing the trajectory of the aircraft and then we use these pictures they say and we try to extract the information. It will make the pilot comfortable on the fact that he's really aligned and he's really on the good path to go to the runway. And that's what we have seen in the last flight test, that he's really able to be confident on the solution.

Speaker 0: Philippe, you've been doing these Dragonfly tests for the last 2 years. Yes. You've seen an improvement in the capabilities over that time?

Speaker 1: Yeah, step by step we have reached a very good level of implementation which is I would say not very far from what could be a solution on the civil aircraft to make again the pilot life easier and safer.

Speaker 2: It'll be up to Airbus to decide if they will implement these technologies on their fleets.

Speaker 0: But not everyone in the aviation industry is a fan of the research that Airbus are doing.

Speaker 6: Pilots are mostly fans of automation. We like things that reduce our workload. But automation is supposed to support pilots to make decisions, not necessarily replace that cognitive decision-making that we do. Those applications need to be looked at in terms of supporting a 2 crew flight deck. We have 2 engines for redundancy.

We have multiple electrical systems for redundancy. It seems crazy to me that we would look at replacing 1 pilot and the only redundancy for that pilot is going to be the automation.

Speaker 0: What's your thoughts on aviation becoming fully automated?

Speaker 1: I'm a pilot, okay? We have no strategic objective to remove pilots from the cockpit.

Speaker 3: That's our policy. But we will do whatever is safest for the overall safety and security of the aeroplane.

Speaker 1: We're many, many years away from ever being able to contemplate a completely automatic aeroplane, I can assure you.

Speaker 2: Fundamentally, all of this research means that probably in the not-too-distant future, you could find yourself on an airplane with a lot more automated features. But no pilot? Well, that still feels like a long way away.

Speaker 5: You

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Are automated flights the future of air travel? - BBC News