The following Air Force FOIA records pertain to Air Force and Raytheon test flights reported by the Associated Press and Germany's Der Spiegel, that took place during the weeks before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and that allegedly were performed without an onboard pilot.
From the History Commons:
Instead, 6 of 16 total runway approaches and touchdowns were performed with a donated FedEx Boeing 727 aircraft and auto-pilot systems, relying on enhanced GPS navigation signals that provide for extremely accurate aircraft placement.
From the July 31, 2008 AF FOIA reply:
"The Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense are each developing GPS based precision approach and landing systems. These systems are known as the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) and the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS), respectively. The JPALS/LAAS Interoperability flight demonstration was conducted on August 25. 2001 at Holloman AFB. New Mexico, A series of 16 approaches were flown to runway J6."
