Automation is the biggest business in town at the moment. Whether it be picking, packing and delivering your latest Amazon purchase, non-driver Uber cabs or drone technology.
I think it's inevitable as the power of computers and AI increases that humans are taken out of the loop. Why not aircraft? We already have autonomous trains.
I think I read somewhere that USAAF drones fly with an almost perfect safety record.
The Mars probes are effectively autonomous due to the delay between here and Earth and then there is the latest Moon lander tests.
Would I be happy to fly on a pilotless aircraft? No. But then people thought they would die of asphyxiation on a train.
Eventually attitudes change.
Skynet anyone?