--- title: Xwing Autonomous Gate-to-Gate Flight Technology: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 description: Find out why Xwing Autonomous Gate-to-Gate Flight Technology is one of the best inventions of 2021 canonical: https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6115299/xwing-automated-flight-technology/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-11-10T11:08:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:55:20.450Z og:title: Xwing Autonomous Gate-to-Gate Flight Technology: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 og:description: Find out why Xwing Autonomous Gate-to-Gate Flight Technology made this year's list og:url: https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6115299/xwing-automated-flight-technology/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a091f67c10babf8/698a1ea086f68e11b46f07c1/best-inventions-2021-Special-Mentions-Autonomous-Gate-to-gate-flight.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Xwing Autonomous Gate-to-Gate Flight Technology: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Xwing Autonomous Gate-to-Gate Flight Technology: The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 twitter:description: Find out why Xwing Autonomous Gate-to-Gate Flight Technology made this year's list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a091f67c10babf8/698a1ea086f68e11b46f07c1/best-inventions-2021-Special-Mentions-Autonomous-Gate-to-gate-flight.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 10, 2021 # Taking Wing Xwing Autonomous Gate-to-Gate Flight Technology by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Fusion Moments _SPECIAL MENTION:_ 2% of the U.S.’s 5,000 airports handle 96% of the cargo. Left out are small regional airports, which simply don’t get service. One possible solution: [Xwing automated flight technology,](https://www.xwing.com/ "undefined") which uses autonomous software to fly small cargo planes to where they’re needed. Xwing has already succeeded in flying proof of concept flights, flown autonomously with a pilot on board, including a four-hour delivery of PPE and other essentials from Concord, Calif to a Navajo reservation in Winslow, Ariz._—Jeffrey Kluger_ **Correction, Nov. 10\.** _The original version of this story misstated the nature of the company’s proof of concept flights. There was a pilot on board as required by federal aviation rules, they were not pilotless._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6115299/xwing-automated-flight-technology/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6115299/xwing-automated-flight-technology/"},"headline":"Taking Wing","datePublished":"2021-11-10T11:08:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:55:20.450Z","description":"Find out why Xwing's Autonomous Gate-to-Gate Flight Technology received a special mention on TIME's 2021 Best Inventions list.","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6115299/xwing-automated-flight-technology/","keywords":["list","franchise","best inventions","Best Inventions 2021"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a091f67c10babf8/698a1ea086f68e11b46f07c1/best-inventions-2021-Special-Mentions-Autonomous-Gate-to-gate-flight.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a091f67c10babf8/698a1ea086f68e11b46f07c1/best-inventions-2021-Special-Mentions-Autonomous-Gate-to-gate-flight.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2021/6115299/xwing-automated-flight-technology/","name":"Taking Wing"}}]}] ```