{"id":254262,"date":"2026-05-24T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/ai-is-learning-to-fly-airplanes-and-aviation-is-starting-to-embrace-it\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T14:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:35:09","slug":"ai-is-learning-to-fly-airplanes-and-aviation-is-starting-to-embrace-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/ai-is-learning-to-fly-airplanes-and-aviation-is-starting-to-embrace-it\/","title":{"rendered":"AI is learning to fly airplanes \u2014 and aviation is starting to embrace it"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI is learning to fly airplanes \u2014 and aviation is starting to embrace it<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/05\/24\/us\/ai-flying-airplanes<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-24 14:10:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.cnn.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Quonset State Airport, Rhode Island<\/span>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>\n <\/p>\n

\n The small Cessna Caravan accelerates down the runway and climbs into the air, all while the pilot beside me keeps his hands off the controls.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cLet\u2019s see those jazz hands,\u201d jokes Tim Burns, chief technology officer at startup Merlin Labs, over the airplane\u2019s intercom from a back seat.\n <\/p>\n

\n On this flight, test pilot Matt Diamond in the left seat beside me is not controlling the airplane at all. Many of the normal tasks of piloting are instead being handled by artificial intelligence.\n <\/p>\n

\n I am, legally speaking, a test subject \u2014 even the airplane is labeled \u201cexperimental.\u201d The Merlin Pilot system handles much more than a traditional autopilot, using a natural language processing model to listen to instructions from a mock air traffic controller and responding over the radio using a computerized female voice. Test pilot Diamond says, \u201cAuthorize,\u201d and the airplane begins turning to a new course.\n <\/p>\n

\n As a pilot myself \u2014 and admittedly a bit of a control freak \u2014 surrendering control to a computer did not come naturally. But the demonstration is an important one as more aviation companies are looking to AI to usher in a new evolution in air travel by using it to automate tasks for pilots and perhaps one day enable fully autonomous flights.\n <\/p>\n

\"Merlin<\/p>\n

\n Our flight is taking place as airlines worldwide are facing a growing pilot shortage. Boeing estimates that carriers will need more than 600,000 new pilots over the next two decades. At the same time, aviation safety officials are confronting increasing pressure on an already strained air traffic control system following a series of high-profile close calls and deadly accidents in recent years.
\n…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI is learning to fly airplanes \u2014 and aviation is starting to embrace it https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/05\/24\/us\/ai-flying-airplanes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":254263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/c-still-22625208-109651-638-still.jpg?c=16x9&q=w_800,c_fill","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-254262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254264,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254262\/revisions\/254264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}