People, read the facts, it is ground based crew flying it, not a drone or bloggs with his feet up watching the autopilot...
Meeb, a drone is an aircraft flown remotely, it matters not where the pilots are as long as they are not in the drone its self.
The Americans have, of course, already achieved true autonomous flight:
The US Navy's new bat-winged experimental drone has been delivered to an aircraft carrier to undergo handling tests aboard the ship.
The Navy said that sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman took delivery of the drone on Monday from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, where it had been undergoing tests.
Truman is the first aircraft carrier to conduct test operations for an unmanned aircraft.
The drone, named the X-47B, is designed to perform one of aviation's most difficult maneuvers: landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier. What's even more remarkable is that it will do that not only without a pilot in the cockpit, but without a pilot at all.
With the drone's ability to be flown autonomously by an on-board computer, the X-47B marks a paradigm shift in warfare.
Currently, combat drones are controlled remotely by a human pilot. The X-47B could carry out a combat mission controlled entirely by a computer. A human pilot designs a flight path and sends it on its way, and a computer program guides it from a ship to target and back.
Read more:
US Navy Aircraft Carrier Tests New Drone | X-47B | Photos