My uncle ran his own engineering firm and would from take his products from R&D, testing, manufacturing right through to sales. Something no engineering firm does these days. A bit of advice he gave me was to never be the first to try something, always be the second and learn from the first’s mistakes.
Thus, this is another point to consider concerning pilotless aircraft. That is why Boeing, Airbus or any major airline is not in a rush to try out unmanned aircraft. Whilst pilotless aircraft are a concept with some feasiblilty, actually making them a reality presents colossal challenges and many opportunities for massive failure.
Take MOL for example, who hates pilots and would love to get rid of them, if he thought there was even a hint of a chance of having pilotless aircraft successfully flying for Ryanair he would be breaking his neck to make it happen. However, he has already said to his share holders that he can’t see it happening in his lifetime. He knows rightly that pilotless airliners are a huge risk right now and he won’t be the first to take the risk.
I think it will ultimately be the bonus hungry CEOs and shareholders that push for pilotless aircraft working in conjunction with small entrepreneurial aviation research companies. It’ll start of a small experiment and maybe after many decades of trial and error we might finally fly on pilotless airliners.