The recent Germanwings air crash shocked the aviation community and the world at large. The fact that a pilot could willfully decide to cause an air crash and kill everyone on board was terrifying. What if the next plane you boarded you didn’t have to wait for a terrorist, but simply count on the pilot to crash it?

The solution is a concept that scientists have been working on for a while now – remotely operated planes that fly without pilots. With new artificial intelligence technology taking on a life of its own, it was just a matter of time before someone tried to fly a plane using AI.

At Nasa’s Ames research center, the R&D funds have increased as companies are now willing to find a solution to the pilot problem. The Pentagon already has cutting edge technology that allows it to assist pilots during combat missions. While they have not got rid of the pilot in fighter jets, there are already UAVs on the make in the skies.

Drone and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are the kernel of the technology which will make it one day possible to construct a science project that allows air crafts to fly without human pilots.