Given the availability of technologies such as GPS, Inertial navigation, radio navigation, radar, AOA sensors - is it possible to build an avionics package which could automatically control (and provide pilots with information to manually control) the flight throughout all phases without requiring a pitot-static system at all?
Given the current low cost of electronic pressure tranducers - would it not make sense to have multiple static pressure transducers spread throughout the airframe (e.g. on the wings, horizontal stabiliser) to monitor the actual aerodynamic performance of the aerofoils and adjust thrust/pitch based on this?
In the event of multiple pitot probe failure/icing - would it not make sense to lower the RAT and calculate airspeed based on RAT power output/rpm?
In the event of multiple pitot probe failure/icing - would it not make sense for the flight control system to execute minute movements of the control surfaces (spoilers/elevator, rudder) and estimate airspeed based on the force required to move the control?
It seems there are a lot of readily available alternative sources of airspeed information - it's just that the rate of adoption of new software technology to take advantage of these is very slow.