Flying: First computer-pilot military cargo aircraft flown without a human flight crew between...

...two military bases.  The aircraft must carry cargo that is at least 80% of its maximum carrying load.  The aircraft must be completely computer-piloted, from taxiing to the runway and taking off, to arriving and taxiing to its parking spot.  As with all of the following future challenges, the only things that can be transmitted to the aircraft is its destination, flight plan, and the instruction to go.  It then acknowledges the order and takes off.

1) First computer-pilot, cargo-only, military aircraft flown without a human flight crew between two military bases, with the flight crossing either the Atlantic Ocean or Pacific Ocean.  The aircraft must carry cargo that is at least 80% of its maximum carrying load.

2) First computer-pilot, military troop aircraft flown with a full load of soldiers, but without a human flight crew, between two military bases.

3) First computer-pilot, military troop aircraft flown with a full load of soldiers, but without a human flight crew, between two military bases with the flight crossing either the Atlantic Ocean or Pacific Ocean.

4) First military to have all of its cargo aircraft be computer flown without human flight crews.  [A likely key to developing this technology is machine learning not only by the aircraft itself but through communication with other computer-pilot aircrafts.  Unlike a human pilot, a computer can learn from all flights flown by robot aircrafts IF programmers allow them to do so.  Each individual computer-pilot aircraft will fly essentially solo, but once it lands and uploads its flight information to central computers, that data can be compiled, compared, and analyzed against other computer-pilot flights and then all computer pilots who update their software by connecting to these central computers can learn what other computer pilots learned from their flights.  And this exchange of information doesn't need to wait until the plane has landed but could be exchanged during a flight.  The more computer-pilot planes that fly and the more often they fly, the better machine learning will be achieved.  And since an aircraft learns nothing sitting on the ground, expect these computer-pilot aircraft to be nearly constantly flying in the air when they start operating.  If need be, these computer-pilot planes will do "locals" (taking off and landing at the same airport) just like human pilots do in the military to maintain their flight hours but with these computer-pilot aircraft, they never need to sleep, eat, or kick back and relax so they might only land to refuel or to take on an actual flight mission.  Again, the more these computer-pilot planes fly, the faster this technology will develop and improve.]

5) First military to have all of its cargo and troop transport aircraft be computer flown, without human flight crews.

6) First military that has all of its cargo and troop transport aircraft computer flown and makes the non-classified flight data available to its country’s private sector aviation industry.

7) First civilian computer-flown cargo aircraft approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  [The military should take the lead in this challenge because they are not controlled by the FAA, because taking risks is all part of being a soldier, and because reducing soldier fatalities and prisoners of war (which occurs frequently with downed flight crews) is a prime goal.  Once the military works out all the kinks and, after tens of thousands of flight hours, proves that this system can safely be trusted to do the job, civilian aviation will soon follow.]

8) First civilian, computer-flown, cargo aircraft allowed by the FAA to fly from New York City to Los Angeles.

9) First civilian package-delivery company to add a computer-flown cargo aircraft to its fleet and use it for a daily route.

10) First civilian package-delivery company to have its entire cargo aircraft fleet be computer-flown.

11) First civilian computer-flown passenger aircraft approved by the FAA.

12) First civilian computer-flown passenger aircraft with a full load of human passengers to fly from New York City to Los Angeles.

13) First corporate jet maker that only makes computer-flown corporate jets. [As this will eliminate the cost of having a human flight crew (except possibly flight attendants), this innovation will likely greatly increase sales of corporate jets.]

14) First civilian, computer-flown airline jet allowed by the FAA.

15) First civilian, computer-flown airline jet to fly with a full load of human passengers (numbering at least 100) between New York City and Los Angeles.

16) First civilian, computer-flown airline jet to fly with a full load of human passengers (numbering at least 100) from London to New York City.

17) First civilian, computer-flown airline jet to fly with a full load of human passengers (numbering at least 100) from Tokyo to Los Angeles.

18) First civilian airline to add a computer-flown airline jet to its fleet and use it for a regular domestic route.

19) First civilian airline to add a computer-flown airline jet to its fleet and use it for a regular international trans-oceanic route.

20) First civilian airline to have all of its fleet be computer-flown.

21) First US state to set a five-year deadline for all aircraft to be computer-flown at the state’s commercial airports.

22) First US state to set a five-year deadline for all aircraft to be computer flown at all of the state’s airports (both commercial and private) and schedule the elimination of all human air traffic controllers at its airports within a month (30 days) after that deadline.