The aircraft is starting to think for itself.
AI-viation follows the systems, decisions, and debates as artificial intelligence moves into the cockpit, the tower, and the hangar.
Why this exists, and what it's watching for.
AI-viation is a running account of artificial intelligence's arrival in commercial and general aviation — the systems already flying, the ones working through certification, and the ones still stuck in committee.
We follow the engineers building it, the regulators approving it, and the pilots trusting it with their hands off the yoke.
Six systems where AI is already changing how aircraft fly, and how they're kept flying.
Autonomous Flight
Self-flying aircraft, uncrewed cargo routes, and the systems reaching for full autonomy.
Air Traffic Control AI
Machine learning entering towers and en-route centers to manage ever-denser airspace.
Predictive Maintenance
Models that catch failing parts before they fail, from engines to landing gear.
Cockpit & Pilot-Assist AI
Decision support, workload reduction, and the debate over how much the cockpit should decide.
Safety & Risk Modeling
Pattern recognition applied to incident data, weather, and fatigue.
Regulation & Ethics
Certification standards, liability questions, and who signs off when the system is wrong.
Three forces converging at once.
Certification is catching up
Regulators are writing the first real rules for machine-learning components in flight-critical systems.
The data finally exists
Decades of flight and maintenance data have made large-scale pattern recognition possible.
The pilot shortage is real
Airlines are looking to automation to close a gap training pipelines can’t fill fast enough.