Sounds like the sort of article a wannabe would write to make himself feel better about not being a pilot.
The public are not going to trust an unmanned passenger jet given the current level of reliability and flexibility of automated systems, anymore than they trust journalists or politicians. Anyway the cost of setting up and running such a system would make pilots look very good value, which of course we are!
No doubt one day it will happen, but as a current Airbus driver I would have to say at the moment, thank God for pilots who sort out the problems caused by designers/engineers! When pilotless passenger jets become the norm, this is one pilot and former computer programmer who will be travelling by road or sea!
No offence to Airbus designers/engineers intended, fine aeroplanes as long as you have two pilots at the front.
And another thing, had Mr Wapshott read the “Right Stuff”, or any book regarding the space program, he would know that several Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions would have ended in failure if it were not for the pilots twiddling a few knobs! The first manned moon landing would have ended in disaster if not for the manual intervention of the pilot. Ask Gordon Cooper about his manual re-entry following a near total electrical failure; he splashed down just four miles from the recovery ship!
Folks like Mr Wapshott insult the achievements of men and women he can never hope to emulate, better he report on something he is qualified to comment on, perhaps births, deaths and marriages.
Feel much better getting that of my chest!
Land asap, could not agree more!