Patent ID: 7784741

Claim:
A method for converting a manned aircraft for unmanned flight operations, the aircraft being of a type including a pilot control capable of being manipulated by a human pilot to affect operation of the aircraft, the method comprising: mounting a first actuator aboard the aircraft, the first actuator being 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; coupling the first actuator to the pilot control with a first clutch configured to selectively couple and decouple movement of the first actuator to and from the pilot control; mounting a second actuator aboard the aircraft, the second actuator being 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; coupling the second actuator to the pilot control with a second clutch, the second clutch being configured to selectively couple and decouple movement of the second actuator to and from the pilot control independently of the first actuator; and, mounting a vehicle controller aboard the aircraft, the vehicle controller being configured to operate the first actuator, the first clutch, the second actuator, and the second clutch to selectively manipulate the pilot control, wherein the vehicle controller is capable of being selectively enabled so as to operate the pilot control actuators and clutches and thereby provide unmanned operation of the aircraft, and of being disabled during flight so as to provide for manned operation of the aircraft by the human pilot.