past and present FLYING

[Lucavdh]

What's the difference between a pilot's Role today ,compared with the past ?

[Herod]

That's too general a question. Depends on the type of flying. Military/civil, fixed/rotary. Then break that down to e.g. military fast-jet, military transport, you could end up writing a book about it. It also depends on what you mean by the past. Compared to 20 years, 50 years, 90 years?

[Double Zero]

I think what Lucavdh is possibly getting at is the fact modern pilots ( in anything military or airliner-like anyway ) have more of a job as a 'Manager' overlooking computer systems nowadays, with 'seat of the pants' skills taking less of a role - especially now it seems the Harrier is gone, in this sad excuse for a UK at least...

A good analogy might be cameras; I used to have a simple manual Hasselblad, and I could very quickly dial in what I wanted it to do - nowadays with digital cameras I have to work out how to spoof the onboard computer into doing roughly what I had in mind !