US Navy Remotely Lands F/A-18 Super Hornet On Carrier Written 2 April 2018

FlightGlobal reported that the US Navy “demonstrated for the first time the ability to remotely take control of an aircraft and land it on an aircraft carrier’s deck.” Officers aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln landed an F/A-18 Super Hornet using the aircraft terminal approach remote inceptor system “developed at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland by Naval Air Systems Command.” The officers also demonstrated “touch-and-go manoeuvres with the system.” During testing, operators “controlled an F/A-18 aircraft using a joystick, while a safety pilot sat in the cockpit as backup.” The system can take control of aircraft up to five miles away. It is not “scheduled for fleet-wide implementation as the system’s engineers plan to analyze the data collected aboard Abraham Lincoln and make adjustments for further at-sea testing.”
More Info (FlightGlobal)