It seems incredible but an aerial drone controlled by thought has actually been flown.

The single engine drone was successfully piloted from the ground by a "pilot" that guided the drone in flight using nothing more than his brainwaves. The historic flight recently took place over the skies of Lisbon, Portugal.

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This epoch making flight was the brainchild of "The Brainflight Project" involving four multinational organizations: Tekever (the project coordinator from Portugal); Champalimaud Foundation (Portugal); Eagle Science (The Netherlands) and Technische Universität München (Germany).

The aim of The Brainflight Project is to build aircraft that can be directly controlled by the human brain. The project has accomplished several important results and is paving the way for thought-controlled aerial drones in the future.

The project team used high-performance electroencephalogram (EEG) systems to measure brain waves noninvasively. Specially conceived algorithms then converted the brain signals into drone commands.

Wearing an EEG skullcap measuring brain activity, the drone operator influenced the drone's path using nothing but simple thoughts.

Basically, the electricity flowing through the pilot's brain acts as an input to the drone's control system to perform a mission with objectives previously defined by the research team. 

"The project has successfully demonstrated that the use of the brain computer interface (BMI) on a simulator for the Diamond DA42 aircraft, where one pilot controlled the simulator through the BRAINLFIGHT system," said Tekever COO said Ricardo Mendes.

"We've also integrated the BMI the UAV ground systems and have successfully tested it in UAV simulators. We're now taking it one step further, and performing live flight tests with the UAV".

He said Brainflight uses a multi-disciplinary approach of combining aeronautical systems engineering with neuro-science research. The project explores two different brain-computer interface (BCI) approaches.

In the long-term, larger jets such as cargo planes could be flown by thought without the need for a crew.

"We believe people will be able to pilot aircraft just like they perform everyday activities like walking or running," said Mendes.

"We truly believe that Brainflight represents the beginning of a tremendous step change in the aviation field, empowering pilots and de-risking missions, and we're looking forward to deliver these benefits to the market with highly innovative products".