Chaps/Chapesses
Can we have a sensible debate about the future of automation that goes beyond the “It ain’t going to happen” and “yes it is” level of comment?
In order to do this we need to think about just what the current two crew members do. I suggest they do two things:
1 Operate the aircraft (which involves making and executing countless decisions about each trip between push back and shutdown)
2 Steer the aircraft (directly control any flight parameter such as speed, height, heading and so on)
So far as 2 is concerned this has become a fairly intermittent task and since it involves much training, skill and currency to do it well, doing it intermittently is producing some well ventilated problems at present.
I know from personal experience that automatics can steer (as defined above) an aircraft much better than me when they are working. However in the past I also know they can fail – just like that.
My answer to the problems inherent in 2 is to improve the automation and make it fail safe by design and thus stop the need for the crew to steer the aircraft.
My view about 1 is that this task will not go away in any foreseeable time scale (thanks to a whole host of reasons from company needs to weather, to customs, to criminality and dealing with drunks to name but a few).
So we need two people in the cockpit but I don’t want them to have to use manual skills - just their knowledge and decision making talents to operate the aircraft reliably and efficiently.