Re: Pilotless A/C
I noticed someone mentioned that we don't have driverless trains. The reason for this (and also why no public transport systems are driverless) is because the only way they would be safe is if you could factor out any human element. By human element this is referring not to pilots but the people who maintain (and produce) the aircraft, trains, buses etc. Engineers (like pilots) are human and will make mistakes. These instances require the ability of out of the box thinking from the operator of the vehicle, especially if mistakes are made in relation to the computer responsible controlling the vehicle. Only when maintenance becomes either fool proof or automated will unmanned transport have the possibility of being implemented on a major scale.
On a personal note with a pilotless flight deck the argument for could someone hack into the computers of all the planes flying over the US, for example, and cause mass devestation is a strong one. If the security agencies can't keep their systems 100% secure there is no hope for airliners.
With regard to having pilotless military aircraft. This I am completely against. I do not believe we should ever have automated military as this simply removes the cost of war.
However, the disscussion of will there be a pilot career, due to it being replaced by a computer is not the more immeadiate case. The question you should be asking is "will there be a pilot career, due to there not being any fuel to run the aircraft on?". This because oil will run out well within my lifetime whereas the chances of pilotless aircraft in my lifetime is pretty remote.