ongoing discussion
I have been flying for a long time and this topic has come up many times during my career, although in the airline realm more so than military helicopters. I am a realist. I am an amateur aviation history buff as well. The conversation would generally turn to the airlines taking the pilots out of the cockpit of the aircraft. My long term prediction: The captain will be removed and replaced by the computer. Why? Well, the captain is the most expensive piece of equipment on the aircraft. Flying a DC-9 for many years has lead to the discussion about the glass cockpit. ( I have a couple thousand hours in glass cockpit AC as well) Why do we need it? In the airline realm, the steam gages work perfectly for what we do. In my opinion, the airlines bought into the glass cockpit for the express purpose of some day replacing the captain. Now, alot of egoists won't accept this premise. I give you two examples of proof. First, if you asked a person in the early 1900's to get on a train with no crew they would call you crazy. A train crew then consisted of a full complement of crewmembers. Today in 2010, many trains operate at high speeds with none or one crewmembers at the controls. I argue that the trains of the past are in many way representative of the airlines of now and in the future. My second argument is the planes that operated during WWII as compared to now. A B17 bomber is close to the size of a modern day small commuter aircraft with glass. In WWII the crew consisted of PIC, copilot, Navigator, Engineer and Radio Operator. Where are we now? PIC, copilot and computer. Remember in the 60's and early 70's a major argument was made when taking the flight engineer out of the cockpits of airliners. Now, why take the captain out of the cockpit. There will be a very difficult fight in the public arena when the airlines remove a pilot from the cockpit. The airlines will not be able to remove both pilots ( the ultimate goal) but will argue that the aircraft will be safe or safer with just one pilot up front and since the entire goal of this effort is to cut costs, the captain will be the victim of the cuts. The redesignation of the title "co-pilot" will be done and that will be that. I don't make the same argument dircetly for military operations as far as the cost cutting element. The fact is that the technology has been created to make this science fiction of yesteryear a reality today. Troops will board the aircraft and go where they are ordered to go. Eventually the folks on the oil rig will do the same. I know that many arguments will be made about the ability of the human to be available to make decisions in the event of unpredictable events. I want to hold onto my ego and agree with that argument because I am a current professional pilot myself. The problem is the folks who make these decisions don't listen to me or any other pilot for that matter. (they will find a few that will totally agree with their position and be the representative pilot for the new plan) I started flying in the early 80's and i am blown away by what I am seeing in the world of avaition. It will continue....
cheers