Contract test pilot Eddie Allen, on loan from Boeing, makes the first flight of the North American NA-16, the prototype of the AT-6 Texan and BC-1 trainer, at Dandalk, Md. Nearly every Army Air Forces pilot, a majority of British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand pilots, and thousands of US Navy aviators in World War II would train in the AT-6.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall caught a ride in the front seat of a modified, artificial intelligence-piloted F-16 on May 2, a high-profile show of confidence in the service’s autonomous technologies—and another key step in maturing that technology for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.