I heard a rumour Embraer looked into it for the E2 so it would be no surprise if Airbus were researching aswell. There's several options for how it could work, all requiring different levels of automation:
- Keep 2x pilots but reduce the PM role by increasing automated monitoring of systems and pilot inputs. This role could then be much lower-skill, more easily trained and potentially combined with other duties.
- Automate the PM role away and provide a data-link to the ground for assistance where required
- Move to a near fully-autonomous aircraft with a single pilot to monitor and provide a back-up of last resort.
IMO certification, not technology, would be the main barrier. The rules for single-pilot large transport aircraft don't really exist and re-writing them is neither simple, quick or cheap.... Retro-fitting is unlikely to work either, limiting it to new types and further delaying implementation.
In summary, I think it will happen but 2025 is optimistic in the extreme. If I was betting I'd say that the next clean-slate single-aisle (ie, MAX / NEO replacement) will be a single pilot aircraft launched around 2030.
Originally Posted by
MG23
I believe that a young pilot starting out today will see total autonomy take his job away before he or she retires
But that's true of most jobs these days. Mine didn't exist thirty years ago and won't exist in anything like its current form in another twenty years.
True, but if pilots have been automated away imagine the millions of other jobs that will also have disappeared. Society as we know it wouldn't exist so there's not much point planning for it
