That seems to be the way that the world is going and the FAA isn't happy about it. The Euros, on the other hand, are embracing the idea that airliners will be flown by computers, with a single human monitor watching (and trying, with limited success, to stay awake).
I don't know how this is going to work. The trend is going towards a human safety pilot who will do all of his or her flying in a simulator, never flying the airplane for real because of the perceived risk of upsetting the passengers. I can envision that it would become a safety violation for a single pilot to take control, absent an emergency.
To Your Health
9 minutes ago
3 comments:
There's a fairly prescient bit of seventies science fiction that prominently features hypersonic computer-controlled aircraft with the pilot's only responsibility to stroll around the aircraft and chat up pretty women, the position purely ornamental.
Co-pilot vainly monitored the computers ...
(Friday)
Flight training is and need to remain at the level of,
WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS FLY THE DAMN AIRPLANE.
Airbus 3xx series, the electric airplane.
No matter what you must know the systems, where the
off switch is, and what happens if your do turn it
off.
Auto pilot has been used and trusted for decades and
has proven to be a useful tool for the pilot to
reduce workload. But replacement... not so much,
more so when something breaks.
About the same level of self driving cars in the snow.
Hint: they can't.
Allison
Reminds me of the suggestion about 25 years ago that the flight crew would become a man and a dog. The man watched the plane fly and the dog watched the man and bit him if he tried to touch the controls.
More seriously, given the developing pilot shortage, I expect the long term solution will be centralized pilot hubs, like drone bases, where pilots remotely maneuver aircraft in the terminal area, while en route aircraft are nearly 100% automated with a few pilots monitoring multiple flights remotely. I don’t say this is good or smart, but I expect it’s the way it will go. The open question is will someone crack the control protocol and smack an airliner full of unsuspecting passengers into some perceived “target”, or will the system be designed with sufficient fail-safes to prevent that? If it’s a Government contract, the question is rhetorical.
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