According to Sikorsky, the secret is tackling one challenge at a time-and using Al selectively. With drones big and small proliferating in both defense and civilian hands, air taxis lurking on the horizon, and advanced automation creeping into cockpits of all types of aircraft, aerospace companies around the world are increasingly grappling with a key question: How do they certify the autonomous and semi-autonomous systems that will be critical to aircraft of the future? It's not as simple-not that any aviation certification process ever is-as adding redundancy, doing a lot of flight tests, and then submitting your product to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US (or any civil aviation authority) with your fingers crossed. No, awareness of the certification process has to be baked into the system's development from conception. This is true perhaps more than any other aviation system, given autonomy's newness and extreme life-safety impact.
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