Garmin Unveils Autolanding Software for Small Aircraft

When you hear "Garmin," you probably think GPS or wearables. Well, add advanced autopilot to the list. Last week, the Kansas-based company announced Autoland, an autonomous flight system for small planes to land themselves in case of pilot incapacitation.

How it works: Autoland will automatically activate if a pilot is passed out, or it can be manually activated by passengers. Bailey Scheel, a lead engineer and Autoland manager, told me since it's designed "for no pilot in the loop," the feature can automate all touchdown tasks:

• Choosing the safest nearby airport and best route ("avoiding weather, obstacles, and terrain")
• Configuring flaps, landing gear, icing systems, and pressurization for each flight phase
• Communicating with authorities, air traffic control, other pilots, and the plane's passengers
• Completing the actual landing and safely stopping on a runway

Scheel said Autoland has test landed "just about 1,000 times…[on] high-altitude runways, runways close to sea level, upsloping, downsloping, tailwinds, headwinds," and the list goes on.

Zoom out: Pending FAA approval, Autoland could debut in planes next year. Since Autoland is still meant exclusively for emergencies, don't go thinking about any autonomous cockpit joyrides.