Will pilot-less planes affect pilots?

[tloz]

Driverless cars, pilotless planes ? will there be jobs left for a human being? | Technology | The Observer (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/19/driverless-cars-pilotless-planes-jobs-human)

Im an aspiring pilot but after reading this, this kind of made me feel depressed. I really want to pursue the career as a pilot but by introducing unmanned planes, thats kind of a problem as demand for pilots will most likely fall. There have been unmanned planes/drones for years but those were only used in the military so I guess the pilot-less planes were inevitable...
So what do you guys think of it?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I doubt you'll see pilotless aircraft in your lifetime.

[emeritus]

I think we need to ask ourselves......

Would you travel in an a/c with no one up front whose welfare is linked to ours. ?
and....

Has a salesperson been born yet who could sell tickets for said flight ?

I think not. At least not until enough of the population has been suckered into believing computors are infallible.

After 55years in aviation I suspect what may be happening is a slow degradation of pilot manipulating skills until there have been enough accidents to start advocating that its too dangerous to have pilots and that totally automated flights are safest.

Fortunately I will not be around and if by any chance I am ,I'll be past flying anywhere as slf ! This scenario would only apply to the airline industry.

Emeritus

[John Farley]

tloz

There is lots of flying to be done outside the airline industry. However if you are thinking airlines then I've said this before but I trust it bears repeating as only one poster comented.

In particular please read the last para carefully.

In the mid 60s I was a safety pilot on a Comet 3B doing cross wind autoland trials with a component of over 30kt. To watch that system flare, smoothly remove the drift angle and squeak the wheels onto the numbers over and over again, convinced me that automatics could achieve standards of ‘flying’ that I could not match.

I say ‘flying’ because I believe words like pilot/piloting/flying mean different things to different people. To avoid ambiguity I suggest we separate out tasks associated with ‘steering' the aircraft from ‘operating' the aircraft.

By steering, I mean controlling any flight parameter. By operating, I mean every other aspect of a flight from pre-flight preparation to filling in the Tech Log afterwards. I believe automatic systems are better at steering tasks while humans are better at operating tasks.

In reply to “What are you going to do when the autopilot fails?” my answer is that future automatic steering systems will not fail in a critical way. Unlike today’s autopilots which disconnect themselves in the event of a problem, future automatics will be designed to fail safe and carry on performing their functions. Just like today’s wing structures.

Autoland thanks to special certification standards has not caused a landing accident since it was first used with passengers in the 70s. Sadly there have been quite a few steering errors by aircrew over the same period.

I am a future Captain climbing out of La Guardia when both engines fail. As the operator I decide the crisis needs a landing on the Hudson. I undo the guards protecting the Glide Landing button and press it. With my knowledge of the aircraft’s gliding performance I estimate the touchdown zone on the local area map, draw the final approach track I want with my stylus, press the Glide Landing button again and thank my lucky stars that I did not have to use skill so save my aeroplane. Just knowledge.

As a future passenger I will always want my flight operated by a Captain and First Officer who have the knowledge to get us to our destination safely without the need for them to use skill.

To be the Captain or First Officer of a future airliner is an ambition that any youngster should be proud to have. We will always need airliner Captains and First Officers to operate our automatically steered airliners.