Will we ever see pilotless commercial aircraft?

[Flying Fox]

There will always be the need for pilots. Even if it is simply to provide redundancy (not wanting to be rude).

However, for many passengers it may simply be comforting to know that there are highly trained people at the controls even if the CPUs do all the flying.

 

[Happy Trails]

Don't forget the dog.

 

[harvyk]

Don't forget the dog.

What, so that the pilot can bite the dog if the dog touches anything?

 

[Happy Trails]

What, so that the pilot can bite the dog if the dog touches anything?

That's the one, sort of.

 

[futaris]

Re: Ask The Pilot

And it is so popular and has never broken down trapping the passengers inside...

Holidaying families stranded at Darling Harbour after Sydney monorail breaks down | News.com.au

The train was packed with families enjoying the school holidays when it stopped just east of the Darling Harbour station, with about 28 adults and eight children plucked from the stricken monorail.

 

[here2go]

Re: Ask The Pilot

Just did a google search and quite a few sites agree that it's around 9.3 'mishaps' per 100k hours. They are considered the USAF most accident prone A/C, but the don't really care as no one is on board to be killed.

Harvyk - did this differentiate by type of UAV? I would be curious about stats re Globalhawk which are similar in size and perhaps complexity to a 737, whereas a wee Aerosonde could skew the stats completely, as a good storm could wipe them out - and they are often not expected to return from a cyclone.

 

[harvyk]

Re: Ask The Pilot

Harvyk - did this differentiate by type of UAV? I would be curious about stats re Globalhawk which are similar in size and perhaps complexity to a 737, whereas a wee Aerosonde could skew the stats completely, as a good storm could wipe them out - and they are often not expected to return from a cyclone.

No, but it was a relatively quick Google search, they didn't really go into the reasons for the much higher losses, I did however get the feeling that because there was no one on board any of these aircraft, they where almost seen as expendable. Obviously any pilotless aircraft we see will not be considered expendable and thus any problem will be dealt with in ways that doesn't involve losing the aircraft, and that would make the numbers a bit better.

I guess a more realistic question which could always be asked, are we likely to ever see B737 sized aircraft or even an A380 sized aircraft flown by just one pilot? Just look at the humble flight engineer. An almost staple of the coughpit crew just 25 years ago, and now name me one modern coughpit which requires them? Could planes become automated to a point that they could be piloted by just 1 person?

 

[ermen]

Re: Ask The Pilot

the way i see it - fighter planes of the future will be pilotless in the air but controleld by pilots in a simulator on the ground - with cameras to replicate the flight coughpit vision on the ground. that way you can get situational awareness as if you were flying the plane, but would be able to execute tighter manouvers that are simply of the human capability at the moment.

 

[letsgo]

Re: Ask The Pilot

Science fiction suggests to me that the use of military drones will eventually lead to pilotless planes, however the passengers will have been replaced by robots / cyborgs / Terminators. The military drones will be targeting all humans, not just terrorists.

And of course the ground controller will be Skynet...

 

[here2go]

Re: Ask The Pilot

the way i see it - fighter planes of the future will be pilotless in the air but controleld by pilots in a simulator on the ground - with cameras to replicate the flight coughpit vision on the ground. that way you can get situational awareness as if you were flying the plane, but would be able to execute tighter manouvers that are simply of the human capability at the moment.

Bandwidth issues for this are too great. I think you'll find that the most accurate description of UAVs is another term: Autonomous Aerial Vehicles. While there is still a human in the loop, that is for decision making only. Skynet is coming.

 

[Scout]

Re: Ask The Pilot

Reminds me of an old story. Plane is about to take off, and over the PA "Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to fly in a pilotless aircraft. Yes, we have no human pilot, but rest assured that with our computer-controlled system nothing can go wrong...go wrong...go wrong...go wrong..."