We've had truly autonomous long-range flight since 1998 with the RQ-4A Global Hawk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk https://en.wi

We've had truly autonomous long-range flight since 1998 with the RQ-4A Global Hawk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_H... A couple highlights from the Records section: > On 24 April 2001, a Global Hawk flew non-stop from Edwards AFB to RAAF Base Edinburgh in Australia, making history by being the first pilotless aircraft to cross the Pacific Ocean. The flight took 22 hours, and set a world record for absolute distance flown by a UAV, 13,219.86 kilometers (8,214.44 mi).[97] > On 22 March 2008, a Global Hawk set the endurance record for full-scale, operational uncrewed aircraft UAVs by flying for 33.1 hours at altitudes up to 60,000 feet over Edwards AFB.[98] Unlike Predator/Reaper/etc. drones, the Global Hawk is autonomous, there is no pilot sitting in a faux-cockpit stateside.