Dan Winterland
Quote: The cost of certifying pilotless airliners will outweigh the cost savings of taking out the pilots. Especially bearing in mind you will have to have higher qualified operators on the ground and one person trained to take over in flight if required, so the numbers will not reduce significantly. Unquote
I think you got that right. Most of the UAV missions I see could be better done at lower cost with powered airplanes. Consider a proposal I just saw for powerline patrol using drones. Wouldn't it be cheaper to use a Cessna 150 with a pilot than go to all the trouble of certifying a UAV (which won't be cheap) and having to still have an operator on the ground a likely additional people to verify traffic avoidance.
I've been looking into UAV operations and it seems to me that the real reason for UAV operations would be dealing with a hazardous environment for the crew. Most of these applications are military in nature. I could see a civilian use for high altitude communication relay where the mission would call for long loiter at high altitude.
Frankly, I don't think we have to worry based on cost.