Slashdot is running an article about a Cornell group who built an unmanned model aircraft using rather conventional hardware and Microsoft Windows XP embedded. What intrigued me most about the story was that the group tested their algorithms for flight control by using them to control a simulated aircraft in Microsoft Flight Simulator. A brief dig turned up other projects. Of course, other groups have been working on autonomous helicopter control, such as CMU and SourceForge’s autopilot project. A cool hobby, if you have the green stuff.