Aerospace · Recorded milestone
Digital fly-by-wire
Recorded year1972
NASA's F-8 flies with a computer between pilot and control surfaces, the basis of modern airliners, drones and air taxis.
Explore this milestone on the interactive mapBuilt on
Led to
- Reusable space shuttleRecorded · 1981enables
- Consumer dronesRecorded · 2010enables
- Runtime safety bounds for a learning flight controllerRecorded · 2024enables
- Electric air taxisRecorded · 2025enables
- Quiet supersonic X-plane fliesRecorded · 2025enables
- Largest electric aircraft fliesRecorded · 2026enables
- Electric seaglidersForecast · ~2029enables
- Electric regional aircraftForecast · ~2031enables
- Dragonfly flies on TitanForecast · ~2034enables
Sources & evidence
Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.