Remote Controlled Flying of Modern Airliner?

dmwalker · 29th Dec 2012, 15:12

I'm sorry if this is not the right forum for this question. In another forum, it has been stated that a Boeing 737NG, for example, could be flown and landed remotely from the ground in the event of a hypothetical flight crew emergency. Is this at all possible?

Thanks.

Denti · 29th Dec 2012, 15:23

No, it is not possible.

FlightPathOBN · 29th Dec 2012, 17:22

Certainly not all variants/equipage...but...

"Could" is your question...and "at all possible"

So the answer is yes.

Wizofoz · 29th Dec 2012, 17:56

Quote:

Certainly not all variants/equipage...but...

No, not ANY current varient or "equipage".

Could one be built with existing technology? sure!

Does one exist?

No.

FlightPathOBN · 29th Dec 2012, 18:25

Actually, it has been done...

dmwalker · 29th Dec 2012, 19:41

Would you say that it has been done experimentally with a specially equipped aircraft but there is not enough interest to justify developing it further?

raraa · 29th Dec 2012, 19:45

I have looked in to this extensively, I found no evidence of any jetliner being controlled remotely, however I stand to be corrected

18-Wheeler · 29th Dec 2012, 20:02

Quote:

I have looked in to this extensively, I found no evidence of any jetliner being controlled remotely, however I stand to be corrected

There's been a small handful that have been fitted with radio control gear for the purposes of deliberate crash testing (707, 727 spring to mind) but there are precisely zero airliners in service that have any gear like that.

FlightPathOBN · 29th Dec 2012, 20:06

enough said.

Dash&Thump · 29th Dec 2012, 21:23

You can put servos in to push and pull on primary controls, but it's the levers, switches and years of experience and seat of the pants feel you simply cannot engineer into an R/C system.

Yet.

FlightPathOBN · 29th Dec 2012, 21:28

RNP transition to a GBAS CAT III 0/0 autoland, autobrakes, auto reverse...
not much needed at all....

msbbarratt · 29th Dec 2012, 22:32

One of many difficulties is that it would be phenomenally difficult to guarantee that an airliner equipped with remote control could not be radio-hijacked (assuming it was designed to allow remote override of even the pilots). Obviously you'd want to encrypt any such radio control, but you then have to solve a lot of key distribution and origin authentication problems. That's something that no one else has wholly adequate answers to just yet.

A small diversion off topic: The shuttle could be remote controlled all the way back down from orbit. It emerged during the inquiry into the Challenger disaster that the only thing that had to be done by the pilot was to lower the landing gear. They subsequently made gear lowering r/c too after the insightful Richard Feynman queried the lack of consistency.

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