AI is learning to fly airplanes — and aviation is starting to embrace it

An AI pilot flies a Cessna Caravan over Rhode Island during a test flight for Merlin Labs. CNN via CNN Newsource

Quonset State Airport, R.I. — 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.

“Let’s see those jazz hands,” jokes Tim Burns, chief technology officer at startup Merlin Labs, over the airplane’s intercom from a back seat.

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.

I am, legally speaking, a test subject — even the airplane is labeled “experimental.” 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, “Authorize,” and the airplane begins turning to a new course.

As a pilot myself — and admittedly a bit of a control freak — 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.

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.

The push toward AI-assisted aviation is also gaining support in Washington. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has promoted artificial intelligence tools as part of the Trump administration’s broader push to modernize the nation’s aging air traffic control system.

“We are never going to outsource the national airspace to AI tools,” Duffy told CNN in a recent interview. “Controllers are going to control the airspace, but we can make their jobs easier.”

Duffy said the administration sees AI as a way to reduce workload for controllers and improve efficiency across increasingly crowded airspace.

Merlin argues artificial intelligence could eventually help address some of the same problems in the cockpit. “Eighty per cent of accidents in aviation are still caused by human error,” Merlin CEO Matthew George told CNN. “If we can reduce that, that’s a pretty useful way to spend our time.”

The idea remains controversial. Commercial aviation has steadily added automation for decades, leading to today’s fly-by-wire systems in which computers interpret pilot inputs even during manual flight.

“Modern cockpits have quite a bit of automation already, but the automation is within a narrowly defined scope,” said Mykel Kochenderfer, whose research at Stanford University focuses on autonomous systems and aviation safety. Kochenderfer said newer AI-assisted systems are designed to handle a broader range of unexpected situations than traditional rule-based automation.

“Our experience shows this can be a very promising way to enhance safety,” he said, “but the industry has a long way to go to further harden the technology and establish the trust required for acceptance.”

Changing the minds of pilots might not be easy. Current in-flight automation systems place the pilot at the centre, allowing them to intervene when necessary.

Capt. Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association which represents more than 79,000 pilots in the United States and Canada, says automation and AI should support pilots, not replace them.

“Technological advancements can improve aviation safety, but they will never be a substitute for the pilots on an aircraft,” Ambrosi said in a statement to CNN. “The most important safety feature on every airline flight will always be two well-trained and rested pilots on the flightdeck.”

Merlin underscores fully pilotless passenger flights are still far away. “We’re not flipping a switch to uncrewed airplanes,” George said. “This is about putting AI alongside human pilots and building trust.”

The company says it has completed hundreds of test flights as it works toward certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. Those standards are among the strictest in transportation, often requiring years of testing and redundancy analysis before new systems are approved.

The military may provide the system’s first major proving ground. Merlin recently secured a contract worth more than US$100 million with the US Air Force to eventually bring the technology to C-130 cargo planes.

As the Merlin system lines us up on final approach, it starts a gradual descent toward runway 34 and jockeys the controls to stay on the flight path, despite a slight crosswind, all the way to touchdown.

“It’s a challenging problem for the automation,” test pilot Diamond says to me as we are taxiing back to Merlin’s hangar. “But once you crack it, it makes things much easier on the pilot.”

Pete Muntean, CNN