PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - How many years to get automated aircraft drones?
Old 18th Mar 2013, 03:21
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Ebbie 2003
 
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Most if not all modern wide body jets are currently capable of taking off, flying to a destination and auto-landing at suitbaly equiped airports with little or no input from the crew - with the crew being there only in case of problems - adding even more system duplication and telementry system for some remote step-in in case of extreme error and you have an aircraft that 99% of the time would be doing the job itself. The problem remains, "who want to be flying the 1%?".

It seems likley that there will 'always' be a human pilot on board for the forseeable future.

I think that "Drones" of the type indicated by the question will first appear as helicopters - they exist already and have high risk supply roles and soon evacuation of injured servicemen.

It is not too much a of leap to have the same system carrying Mr. Business Tycoon from his country house to a landing site atop the city center corporate HQ - if something goes wrong only one loss not hundreds(notwithstanding the helicopter hitting building scenario).
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