The European Space Agency is turning to owners of terrestrial robot aircraft to aid those that journey into space.

BBC: Esa seeks help to control robot spacecraft

Among BAE Systems' plans, for example, is the co-operative control of drones, which would allow a pilot in a jet to fly with a squadron of the robot aircraft on surveillance or combat missions.

ECONOMIST: Artificial intelligence

The robot aircraft, known as aerosondes, are the brainchildren of an engineer called Tad McGeer and are being developed in a collaboration between the Insitu Group, a firm based in White Salmon, Washington State, and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

ECONOMIST: Robots in the cockpit