Originally Posted by
Wheelnut69
Is there really a solid economic driver to do away with pilots? Yes, pilots are expensive, but put up against the overall cost of operating a large passenger jet, the pilot's costs are, if not insignificnt, minimal.
Better to look for fuel economy improvements or lower maintenance costs.
Plus I think the psycological hurdle of getting aboard a pilotless aircraft will be a step too far for most passengers.
If you can distribute the cost for two pilots over 400 sold tickets there is very little economic drive... The costs for two pilots in a 19 seater with 12 sold tickets are more significant.
So economically pilotless small planes are more interesting. For cargo planes the psychological hurdle is not relevant and here goes a similar argument but then based on pilot wages per kilo cargo. And getting rid of the pilot allows another 100kg or so extra cargo in the plane.
So looking at current operations, I expect that the small mail runs (<1000kg max load cargo planes) are the first candidates for drone-replacement, but there also is an option to go to smaller (50-100kg load) unmanned planes (that can't even fit a pilot).