Poeli:
I agree that there will always be air travel, but the question we have to ask ourselves is: how big will it be? Will it be 50% of what it is now? Will high speed rail have taken over regional flights?
Good question indeed.
Mighty ducks:
Cheers KAG,
2052 is scary to think of alright.
It's not scary if you look at it today without denial (denial: there will always have aviation like in 2011, there will always have dinosaurs on earth, we will have more and more oil, if we have no oil we will use peanut butter...) and know how to adapt. I believe, I could be wrong, that pilot is a career of the past. Investing today 100 000 Euros in this game looks a bit like gambling to me.
The flight school are here to make business, the boss/manager wants to "hire" you to avoid a second mortgage. Keep it in mind when they promise you a great future and pilot shortage in aviation.
In the 80s drones were not used, look at today in the army: it's changing fast.
Being optimistic doesn't mean to beleive "world is fix and not changing" and doesn't mean "no need to take hard decisions everything will be fine", but being optimistic means beleiving in life and happiness, whatever the path you choose.