If you're going to have a bunch of killer drones roaming the skies, you better make damn sure you can control 'em.
Pilotless plane promoters have long promised this would be doable. And now, after a series of test flights earlier this month, there's reason to think they're right.
In one trial, control of the X-45A experimental unmanned plane was passed from an operator at Edwards Air Force Base in California, to another, 900 miles away, at a Boeing facility in Seattle. The Seattle pilot took over for only six minutes. But the switch was significant, regardless.
Equally reassuring was what went down at the beginning of the month at Edwards. One pilot was able to take charge of two X45s at once, for about an hour.
Eventually, the goal is to let one flesh-and-blood operator guide an entire squadron of death-dealing drones at once. That's still a ways off. But this start ain't bad.
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