Aviation is driven by economics.
There are quite a few calculations of the savings that could be made that seem a bit dubious to me. FOs really don't cost that much. For authorities to authorise single pilot ops in airliners would require a change in design of the aircraft and Ryanair alone do not have the kind of buying power to get the manufacturers to go with it.
As regards single pilot crew with assisted control from the ground or no pilots onboard - it would be a massive project. The costs and the length of time involved in implementing the systems needed to go from proposal through design, certification, manufacture and implementation are massive. There would be vast quantities of difficulties eg. a lack of bandwidth for the data transmission and navaid/beacon/communications reliability across Africa and South America. etc. To go ahead with this kind of technology would require not only all authorities to agree a standard and pay for the purchase and upkeep of hardware on the ground and satellites (out of fees paid by the airlines) but also all the aircraft manufacturers, who would have to take a massive risk to cover the development costs and potential liability - something they would only do if there was a real demand from the majority of airlines with guarantees of them adopting the technology. Airlines cannot be relied upon to commit to projects that take decades (as the industry is so uncertain). The savings involved would not cover the costs (for many decades if ever) and the system would only work if it was adopted worldwide simultaneously. None of this is compatible with the cash strapped airlines of today who are more interested in shorter term guaranteed savings such as lighter weight aircraft with more efficient engines and types of traffic management that can be implemented in the near future at minimal cost to the authorities they fund.
The way the latest automation is now developing is to improve safety by actually including the pilots a lot more in what's happening to make the systems an aid not a replacement. A better machine-human interface is what is needed to prevent what was previously referred to as pilot error and it is economically viable as well.
Last edited by Pelikanpete; 28th Mar 2010 at 21:22.