Rethinking the role of Human Pilots.
Technology is great, but oddly enough, technical innovations designed to make life easier for pilots WILL ultimately render them obselete. But, when is the question?
Remember when aircraft carried radio operators and navigators?
Or more recently, flight engineers? Boxes have replaced these people and while it's easy to rationalize that none of this group actually flew the aircraft, new technology will send pilots down the same path to obsolescence. Pilots have nobody to blame but themselves, since they are the ones who, in an apparent misguided desire to make flying safer and easier, pushed the research forward. Flight instruments, navaids, autopilots, GPS, integrated avionics, enhanced vision, synthetic vision, autolandings, all of these innovations are pushing pilots from their traditional functions into the role of Systems Monitors.
As such, it should be no surprise that these Systems Monitors will one day evolve into remote observers. That day is now. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) such as Global Hawk, have shown that, for many applications, it is unnecessary to have a human 'up front' while an aircraft is flying. Armed with precision-guided weapons, these deadly drones will one day do our fighting for us. Fifty years ago, who would have believed that aircraft weighing almost a million pounds would be landed without pilots touching the controls? Such landings happen now in the form of Cat 111/autothrottle operations at various airports throughout the world.
It's all about economics. As pilot's pay rises there will be continuing pressure to achieve greater productivity.
Technology has got us this far and will no doubt continue to provide both steady progress and giant leaps into aviation's future.