AI in aviation – the future of air travel and air combat
There is so much more a machine can do than just aid us in flight. I was first made aware of this fact in October 2023, when I was invited by a friend of mine, a retired US counterintelligence officer and an aviation enthusiast himself, to the Association of the United States Army panel in Washington, D.C.
The meeting, which featured senior military officers and C-level company representatives, focused on a bold topic – The Future of Army Aviation. It was about a year after ChatGPT had been released, at a time when AI had already become the buzzword on the lips of everyone inside and outside the tech industry. It was at that point that I began to understand the broader perspective, especially about the role of AI and autonomy in military aviation.
AI-controlled fighter jets, air taxis filling the skylines of major cities, hassle-free boarding procedures that take less than a minute – these are just the tip of the iceberg. In the paragraphs below, you will discover all of these fascinating advancements that reshape modern aviation.
Key takeaways
- AI improves civilian air travel. AI facilitates the operation of airports through faster passenger identification. It helps air traffic controllers by providing data on flight paths and weather. It also improves congestion management.
- Aircraft maintenance and manufacturing benefit from AI. Companies that build planes create digital copies of the products and perform analyses with AI to detect flaws, predict the need for maintenance, and optimize part lifecycles. This leads to higher safety, faster analyses, and lower operational costs.
- AI-assisted flight. We’re not there yet for fully autonomous passenger flights. AI supports pilots with swift data interpretation, rerouting, and hazard detection. However, projects like Wisk Aero and eHang are working on autonomous, short-range air taxis.
- Changes in air combat. Countries such as the US and China are spearheading the idea of AI-controlled aircraft. The US has already conducted the first dogfight between an AI-piloted F-16 and a human pilot, while China is converting its fleet of old J-6s into armed, autonomous drones.
- Human-machine teaming is the future of warfare. The Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program outlines the vision of AI-controlled wingmen supporting human pilots. The role of AI is also to enhance situational awareness, reduce crew requirements, speed up human decision-making, and provide recommendations.
The past, the present, and the future
The idea of a machine controlling a plane isn’t new. The origins of the first autopilot can be traced back as far as 1912, to the invention of the Sperry Corporation. In 1947, a U.S. Air Force C-53 Skytrain made its first transatlantic flight entirely using autopilot. The HUP/H-25 Retriever, designed in the 1950s, was the first helicopter to have autopilot tech on board.
Fast forward to the present day, and several major aviation organizations have released their views and plans on the use of AI in air travel and air combat. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have both released their artificial intelligence roadmaps for aviation, while the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) published a paper entitled “The Impact of artificial intelligence on the aviation sector”.
Meanwhile, there are reports of China transforming its old Soviet-era jets into autonomous drones, Lockheed Martin has just released a video presenting its Vectis unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) developed by the famous team at Skunk Works, and the first dogfight between an AI-controlled F-16 versus a human pilot already took place at the end of 2024.
The AI transformation in aviation is already well underway.
The application of AI in civilian and military aviation
There are many aspects to cover on the topic. For simplicity and to keep a clear structure, I broke down this article into two major parts: the civilian side of AI integration in aviation, and the military applications of the technology.
Next-level airport and air traffic management
AI systems are already in place at some airports to support the flow of thousands of people every day, and more innovations are on the way.
The Dubai Airport has already rolled out its AI-powered passenger corridors – a type of system that identifies travelers in seconds, greatly accelerating processing. A biometric recognition system, including facial recognition, gathers all the information that is needed to get you through the boarding procedure quickly. There is no need for travel documents, such as a passport, an ID card, or a boarding pass. Personally, though I appreciate fewer queues at airports, as a privacy-first person, I’m not overly excited about facial scans.
AI can support airports in other ways. The tech is of great help to air traffic controllers (ATCs), improving flight trajectory predictions and situation assessment. Algorithms can help analyze weather patterns, air traffic congestion, and sector configurations. They can optimize flight paths for lower fuel consumption, decreased flight time, and cost reduction.
Machines are faster at data analysis, which means they can provide critical information or recommendations quickly, thereby reducing delays and improving safety. AI systems can help detect debris on the runway, automate the detection of bird strike hazards, and identify unlawful use of drones within the airport's proximity. This last example is quite a common issue. There is a hospital helipad next to a flat I used to live in, and the air ambulance pilots used to complain about civilian drones being flown in the area.
AI for aircraft production and predictive maintenance
Quality control can greatly benefit from the use of AI thanks to its ability to analyze vast amounts of information in a short time. This helps in the identification of production or design flaws. Nowadays, companies already create digital twins of their products to be tested with AI to optimize them in different ways. In aviation, an AI solution can compare the digital version of a component with its physical counterpart. If the performance is different between the two, maintenance can be organized.
Expanding on the maintenance aspect, with its ability to simulate and predict, AI can help manage aircraft and component lifecycle more effectively, evaluating the state of the equipment. It can help identify the optimal time to retire vehicles or replace parts. Thanks to access to historical data, it can suggest future design improvements.
On a different note, robots are already used in aircraft manufacturing, and the trend will only get stronger in the coming years.
AI supporting flight crews and enabling autonomous flight
AI can soon provide virtual assistance to pilots and flight crews. It can analyze the situation during flight and suggest improvements, e.g., redirection. It can help interpret sensor data, calculate fuel consumption, and detect icing on the aircraft (which limits its performance).
Hybrid solutions that involve human-AI cooperation are being analyzed to automate decision-making, as there is doubt whether machine learning tools can effectively and safely handle such a level of independence. This leads to the conclusion that, at the current stage of AI development, fully autonomous flight for civilian air travel is not on the table yet.
That being said, the rapid development of drone technology, combined with autonomous systems, has led to the emergence of businesses that want to introduce small, autonomous air taxis for urban air mobility. Check out California’s Wisk Aero aerospace manufacturer or China’s eHang if you’re looking forward to your first autonomous air taxi fare.
AI integration in military aviation
Virtually all branches of the US military have invested in AI development in one way or another. As for the air force, the key areas that AI is expected to support include vehicle autonomy, collaboration, crew reduction, and data analysis. Not much is yet known about the American 6th-generation F-47 air superiority fighter, but AI plays a critical role in the US Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program.
Autonomous drones and fighter jets
Multiple countries across the globe have been developing unmanned aerial vehicles for years, with the US spearheading the research for more than 2 decades. AI has taken this arms race to another level.
During the Changchun Air Show that took place in China in September 2025, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) presented a 1950s J-6 Shenyang jet (the Chinese version of the Soviet MiG-19 Farmer) as a supersonic unmanned platform, capable of carrying 250kg of ordnance over a distance of roughly 700 kilometres. This confirmed the widespread gossip that China has already been transforming its large stockpile of old jets into autonomous vehicles. Given the tense political climate in the Indo-Pacific region, there are fears that these unmanned platforms could be used to overwhelm Taiwan’s air defenses with low-value targets during a potential confrontation.
On the other side of the globe, the US has already proved that F-16s can be flown by artificial intelligence. The first dogfight between a modified F-16 fighter jet (an X-62A VISTA) and an experienced pilot took place in early 2024 at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The result was reported as “roughly even”, hinting that the AI would already have a high chance of winning against a novice airman.
Autonomy was highlighted at the 2023 AUSA meeting as a key aspect and is closely connected to what the armed forces refer to as Launched Effects. LEs are small, unmanned aircraft or munitions launched from autonomous ground or air platforms. They can perform different roles, including intelligence gathering, electronic warfare, or suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD).
Collaboration between AI-controlled vehicles and humans
Aircraft autonomy is one thing, but another aspect is collaboration between machines and humans, the “human-machine” interface, as it was mentioned during AUSA 2023.
Perhaps one of the best examples is the Loyal Wingman Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, which is also a key part of NGAD. The idea is to have one jet, such as the F-35, F-22 or the upcoming F-47, piloted by a human supported by several AI-powered autonomous “wingmen”. The pilot’s role would be more of a manager of the wing.
There are several companies involved in the CCA program. One of the most notable examples is the Vectis stealth aircraft, developed by Skunk Works (a part of Lockheed Martin), the team largely responsible for the US dominance in the air across almost a 100 years of history (dating back to 1939). Skunk Works projects include, from the oldest to newest:
- the P-80 Shooting Star
- the U-2 Dragon Lady
- the SR-71 Blackbird
- the F-117 Nighthawk
- the YF-22 (which became the F-22 Raptor)
- the X-35 (which became the F-35 Lightning II)
In November 2025, Lockheed Martin showcased the Vectis in a short promotional video, highlighting its stealth, interoperability, autonomy, 5th gen fighter collaboration, affordability, and survivability. In the video, we see several of these CCAs directed by the F-22 to engage air targets while the human-piloted jet remains at the back of the formation.
...the seamless integration of AI technologies to control a drone in flight utilizing the same hardware and software architectures built for future F-35 flight testing. These AI-enabled architectures allow Lockheed Martin to not only prove out piloted-drone teaming capabilities, but also incrementally improve them, bringing the U.S. Air Force’s family of systems vision to life.Source: Lockheed Martin website
Reducing the need for human crew
During AUSA 2023, MG Michael C. McCurry, Commanding General, United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence stated:
We have to unman unmanned formations.
The general meant reassigning human resources to analyze the data gathered by the new systems, rather than focusing on simpler tasks, such as driving trucks and trailers or setting up landing strips. The aim is also to reduce the need for runways, large ground control stations, and to reduce the requirements on the aviation brigade. He then continued explaining his point by highlighting the need to answer the following questions:
How do you get from a crew of four to a crew of two, before you go to optionally manned? How do you go from a crew of two to a crew of one, before you go to optionally manned? How do you relieve the burden of the aviator in the cockpit with the technologies [...]?MG Michael C. McCurry, Commanding General, United States Army Aviation Center; AUSA 2023
The conclusion is simple. As with the different branches of industry, one of the goals of AI in military aviation is to substitute humans with machines without losing effectiveness, and to move the freed human resources to other tasks. It was highlighted during the meeting that the use of AI doesn’t mean a reduction in staff. This comes as no surprise, as the USAF has had notable staffing problems in recent years, failing to reach its recruitment targets in 2023 for the first time since 1999. Fortunately, it seems that 2025 has successfully turned this negative trend around.
Faster data analysis, less pilot load, better decision-making
Computers have always been used to analyze vast amounts of data many times faster than humans, and AI is enhancing these capabilities further, combining them with autonomy to modernize the battlefield.
While in the cockpit, the pilot is often flooded with information. Many types of fighter jets have two-seat variants to split the roles of operators and for training purposes. For example, the famous, now-retired F-14 Tomcat used to have a pilot and a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO), the latter being responsible, among other areas, for radar management, weapons systems, navigation, and communication. The F-15s, F-16s, and F-18s also have two-seat variants.
In contrast, the F-35 Lightning II, the most widely produced 5th-generation fighter, is a single-seat aircraft, largely due to progressing automation. The jet was designed to evolve, both in terms of software and hardware, and the Block 4 upgrade suite will include roughly 80 improvements. Many of the details are unavailable, but we know it has the ability to control drones, including the future fleet of CCAs, such as the Vectis.
Though not much is known about the F-47, which is set to take its first flight in 2028, it will most probably use AI to analyze sensor data, improve targeting, greatly speed up decision-making, and provide the pilot with a set of options for any given situation.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown Ukrainian ingenuity and the critical role of drones on the modern battlefield, both in terms of data acquisition and lethality. Though most of the devices are low-cost, remotely-operated devices, an article by the Center for European Policy Analysis already highlights the use of AI-powered drones by Ukrainian forces:
That sequence: detection, AI identification, long-range strike, and follow-up, captures the way some units now fight as the war’s relentless race for better technology rages on.Source: cepa.org
Conclusion
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration when I say AI is changing air travel and air combat. The 2023 AUSA meeting on the future of military aviation predicted that the change would appear in steps. Indeed, recent months have shown AI systems seeping into different areas of both civilian and military aviation at a steady pace.
Numerous innovations are on the horizon. From air taxis, better airport management, autonomous vehicles, lightning-fast data analysis, and the human-machine interface to entire wings of unmanned aircraft commanded by a single jet – these are just some of the technological advancements already being worked on. Whether we like it or not, the AI revolution has reached the skies.