On 22 September 1997 an important step was taken toward automatic rather than manual control of takeoff and landing. In a one-hour test at Trout Lake in Washington, Aerosonde Millionaire flew under autopilot continuously from launch to touchdown.
Figures show the landing as plotted on ground-station displays.
The aircraft touched down smoothly on the Trout Lake runway, made one small bounce and a large-angle yaw, and then decelerated rapidly through some tall clover. Overall the performance was quite comparable to a good manual landing.