This highly trained and much qualified one-time avionics specialist often teases pilots that the avionics industry first eliminated the wireless operator, then the navigator and lately the flight engineer and that the co-pilot is next and then finally the captain.
Fun is fun, and we all like to poke fun at our colleagues from time to time. In reality, there is absolutely no way that the systems that are mentioned in the forgoing post could be controlled 'blind' from the ground. They are in reality very weakly integrated. How would the ATC Controller instruct the FMC to do anything? Datalink? What datalink exactly? Arm the auto-approach? OK, so what about the preceding mode changes and how do we enter the speeds into the auto-throttle? As for the FMC lowering the flaps and extending the landing gear... Ho, ho, ho yes - and Father Xmas comes down the chimney and leaves everyone a free Playstation 2 at Xmas. A tad too much Hollywood here methinks.
We are actually looking at a complete redesign and integration of the navigation and control systems of every aircraft in service today. No doubt it could be done - engineers can design and build anything they set their minds to - but no airline could ever afford to buy the modifications nor could (or would) any passenger afford the price of a ticket for a flight in such a machine. Looking at the certification programme for Concorde one can easily deduce that the certification process would be a somewhat lengthy process. Like about twice as long as the remaining useful life of the aircraft that are to be modified?
The FMC does have a function that will wake the crew up if they don't touch an FMC button for a while. I doubt if most pilots were aware of this as they don't get much chance to find out - the 'execute' key on the FMC's MCDU is the most utilised part of a modern airliner. The nearest thing to a pilotless aircraft we have today is the cruise missile and that is a one-way flight, pre-progammed from start to finish and with no intention to accompliash a safe landing at its conclusion. [I'd hate to have to interfere in the progress of a cruise missile flight. Think of the consequences if you failed]
Maybe in a couple of decades we will be getting somewhere. We don't even have driverless high-speed trains yet and surely that's something much easier to develop? In the meantime we will need a pilot if only to keep hold of the 'dead man's handle' Or FMC MCDU Execute Key to give it its proper name.
