Re:Airbus' self-flying plane just completed taxi, take-off, ...
by jillesvangurp on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @08:29AM
(#23974990)
Garmin ships a feature called autoland. I think at least one plane is shippng with that.
Austin Meyer (of x-plane fame) actually build an ipad app that can be hooked up to the autopilot (he actually did this at some point but never shipped the integrated product probably for certification reasons) to do exactly this. It's called xavion: http://xavion.com/. Basically the app calculates the safest glidepath to the best airport for you and guides you to that. The feature is designed for engine out scenarios where pilots don't have a lot of time for making good decisions. It basically continously updates its plan as you are flying based on glide ratio, altitude, runway length and a few other factors.
The autopilot integration is probably not all that hard to do. It's just tricky from a legal point of view.
Austin Meyer (of x-plane fame) actually build an ipad app that can be hooked up to the autopilot (he actually did this at some point but never shipped the integrated product probably for certification reasons) to do exactly this. It's called xavion: http://xavion.com/. Basically the app calculates the safest glidepath to the best airport for you and guides you to that. The feature is designed for engine out scenarios where pilots don't have a lot of time for making good decisions. It basically continously updates its plan as you are flying based on glide ratio, altitude, runway length and a few other factors.
The autopilot integration is probably not all that hard to do. It's just tricky from a legal point of view.