While the more pedantic among us would argue that every plane is controlled by our brains, German researchers at the Technische Universität München and the TU Berlin have created a plane that eschews all the messy, meaty bits (your head, your hands) that sit between the brain and the plane.
Called Brainflight, the EU-funded project aims to prove that brain-controlled flight is possible and has already demonstrated that even pilots with little or no experience can easily fly using a direct brain interface. Obviously these novice pilots were “going up” in simulators, but the idea is the same.
The project, headed up by Professor Florian Holzapfel, aims to allow the average person to fly a plane without much prior training.
“A long-term vision of the project is to make flying accessible to more people,” said engineer Tim Fricke in a release. “With brain control, flying, in itself, could become easier.”
There’s no word on availability or further implementation possibilities but the team will show off their system in September at the “Deutscher Luft- ind Raumfahrtkongress.” I, for one, welcome our brain-controlled flying robotic overlords.