AeroTime
• Miquel Ros
The 2026 World Aviation Festival in Lisbon focused on how artificial intelligence is changing work behind the scenes at airlines. Its highlights centered on three operational areas: aircraft turnarounds, disruption management and airline payments, putting AI’s expanding role in day-to-day airline processes at the center of the event.
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The 2026 World Aviation Festival in Lisbon focused on how artificial intelligence is changing work behind the scenes at airlines. Its highlights centered on three operational areas: aircraft turnarounds, disruption management and airline payments, putting AI’s expanding role in day-to-day airline processes at the center of the event.
Qatar satellite operator Es’hailSat has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Qatar Mobility Innovations Center, a research and innovation center owned by Qatar University, to explore collaboration opportunities in artificial intelligence and related technologies. Es’hailSat announced the agreement Nov. 9.
Shield AI says its Hivemind software enabled two U.S. Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft to fly in a multi-ship formation for the first time and perform coordinated beyond-visual-range counter-air tactics. The combat maneuvers were simulated, demonstrating software-enabled coordination between the uncrewed aircraft.
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Multiple collaborative combat aircraft flew together on a joint sortie for the first time, with two Anduril YFQ-44A Fury jets controlled by Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy software. Separately, the Royal Navy plans to demonstrate Northrop Grumman’s YFQ-48A Talon Blue from a Queen Elizabeth-class carrier in 2027 as it develops a future hybrid air wing.
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Google has agreed to additional privacy protections in its proposed $10 million purchase of enterprise data from the now-defunct airline, after objections from the union representing Spirit flight attendants. The revised terms exclude 20 categories of data linked to former pilots and flight attendants, and the union has withdrawn its objections.
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Ring’s Drone Cam autonomously flies between rooms to investigate suspicious activity, streams live video and can record at night; it is priced at $249.99. Amazon also introduced a $1,000 AI-powered robot for business patrols, extending the company’s security products beyond fixed cameras and doorbells.
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A robot has assembled part of an antenna in orbit, demonstrating a new approach to building structures too large to fit within launch-vehicle fairings. DARPA’s NOM4D program moves beyond space stations assembled from pre-built modules toward robotic construction of larger spacecraft and infrastructure in orbit.
U.S. Special Operations Command awarded Merlin Labs an $8.9 million task order to advance its autonomous flight technology on Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules aircraft. The work moves the effort into cockpit-system integration, testing and safety evaluations, ahead of future flight testing.
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