[wavewrangler]

Was this supposed to be one of many tests, the final test, or THE test? I’ll read it again, but the way the writer has it framed makes it appear as if the Air Force conducted a 2800 mile flight-test and said, “Alright, we’ve seen enough,” and called it good.

[quote] “The use of Xwing’s autonomous aircraft eliminated the need to fly a larger aircraft such as a C-130 to deliver critical cargo to the warfighter on short notice,” said Maxime Gariel, president, chief technical officer and co-founder of Xwing. [/quote]

Did it though? All jokes aside, since when was California an active war zone? (I tried to frame this better—-under siege, in a fire-fight, etc. but kept coming up short)

This would be too far a stretch to assume the average skimmer to connect, but as a side-thought, perhaps we should look at it as this marking the beginning of the experiment, rather than the end.

I think the idea is cool and if it can be extended to private applications such as medical and critical, all while lowering costs and increasing access to the general public, that’d be great.

But reading this left me with more questions than answers

[engineer_22]

Yes, I am left believing this is the first test and not the announcement of a contract for ongoing services.

It's potentially very economical, in that there is a shortage of pilots. Reducing flight hours required for low tonnage short haul flights is potentially going to save your experienced pilots for more critical missions

[dragonwriter]

> Did it though?

Yes, that's what they were doing during the test.

> All jokes aside, since when was California an active war zone?

Warfighters aren't always based in active war zones. For example, the last round of U.S. strikes against targets in the Middle East involved non-stop bomber flights from the US.