Patent ID: 7624943

Claim:
An apparatus for converting a manned aircraft for unmanned flight, the aircraft including a pilot control capable of manipulation by a human pilot to affect operation of the aircraft, the apparatus comprising: a first actuator configured to selectively provide at least one of movement and resistance to movement of the pilot control in a first manner including at least one of linear and rotational motion and having a first scope describing a first amount of allowable movement; a first actuator clutch configured to selectively couple and decouple movement of the first actuator to and from the pilot control; a second actuator configured to selectively provide at least one of movement and resistance to movement of the pilot control in the first manner and having a second scope larger than the first scope; a second actuator clutch operatively coupled to the pilot control and configured to selectively couple and decouple movement of the second actuator to and from the pilot control independently of the first actuator; and, a vehicle controller configured to operate the first actuator, the first clutch, the second actuator, and the second clutch to selectively manipulate the pilot control, the vehicle controller capable of being selectively enabled to operate the actuators and clutches to provide unmanned operation of the aircraft and disabled during flight to provide for manned operation of the aircraft by the human pilot.