Passenger or cargo planes without pilots will never exist.
I'm sure engineers at Boeing or Airbus could develop such a plane today. However, there will never be a company daft enough to take the risk of having such planes fly cargo or passengers.
There's just no way the lawyers would allow such a high liability risk to the company. The reason pilots are still in the cockpit is because Boeing and the airline need someone to pile the blame on legally when people die.
Last edited by root; 23rd Jul 2013 at 13:44.