'Blogsy' the word 'safe' is subjective, what one person would consider safe may not mean it's accepted by the next person, that word 'safe' is such a grey area, probably the biggest stumbling block here.
The Tech is there but is the interest & are we ready for it?......not for a looong time yet I reckon but it's bound to happen one way or another even if we start the process by having a 'safety pilot' aboard 'till we all get used to the idea.
Remember guys the sound barrier was for a time simply not possible to break, a wall in the sky if you went thru it you would break yr plane apart.
Even flight in it's infancy was considered very dangerous but look where we are now only a 100 yrs or so latter, that's considered 4 generations, not much in the scheme of things really & we look at flight from a pax POV as bloody boring not dangerous!:-)
Oh don't worry 'GB' you & I will be loooog gone b4 this idea gets off the ground & flying schools as we know have little to worry about for now but just like Leonardo Da Vinci he never saw what he kinda started not even the scratching of the flight surface & he would have be burnt at the stake if he even said anything like what we have 2day but we have progressed (some would say regressed if yr an employee with certain Airlines) just a little since his days:-)
Maybe Nostradamus knew well b4 we eve crawled out of the caves to watch the Eagles high above:-)
Wmk2