Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and their project partners have now demonstrated a completely automatic landing with vision assisted navigation that functions properly without the need for ground-based systems.
In the project C2Land, supported by the German federal government, TUM researchers have partnered with Technische Universität Braunschweig to develop a landing system which lets smaller aircraft land without assistance from ground-based systems.
Test pilot Thomas Wimmer is completely convinced by the landing system. He said, “The cameras already recognize the runway at a great distance from the airport. The system then guides the aircraft through the landing approach on a completely automatic basis and lands it precisely on the runway’s centerline.”
“Automatic landing is essential, especially in the context of the future role of aviation,” said Martin Kügler, research associate at the TUM Chair of Flight System Dynamics.