Originally Posted by
Wrightbrothers
I persoanly can't see it happen in most cases, and I persoanly wouldn't want to fly on a plane with no flight crew.
However, I COULD see a non-pilot (or certainly a 1 pilot) plane doing domestic flights (lets take the UK as an example)
I could see something like an A319 or A320 doing say LHR-MAN or LHR-NCL, since they don't go over any oceans or seas (so are over land at most times), they don't cruise at above 30,000ft, probably don't go at maximum crusing speed (although I could be wrong), don't go into a different countries airspace, the flights are relativly short and don't carry a huge number of passengers or cargo.
1 pilot planes indeed do domestic flights now. Always have done. The trouble is, they have limited passenger loads and weights.
There was a time when shorthaul mainline narrowbodies had to have flight engineers. DC-9 was designed to be just small enough to be able to fly with pilots only.
But then the limits were pushed: at first 737 was designed to be flyable by two pilots, then after some time Airbus 300 and 310 and Boeing 767, finally MD-11 and Boeing 747-400...
Shouldnīt someone build increasingly bigger solo pilot commuter planes until there is no such thing as first officer?
Originally Posted by
Wrightbrothers
And so the airlines could perhaps push something like that, however, once you get into long-haul routes and flying over vast oceans and seas, it's a completely different story.
Flying over vast oceans and seas, there is little conflicting traffic and it is on well-known and predictable routes. Therefore, couldnīt a pilot take off, fly out of the traffic on land and, once safely on a clear track, leave the cockpit for toilet break, meal, crew rest etc, so that cockpit would be unattended until the pilot returns for arrival and landing?