https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f524591680.jpg

If this were to happen especially as soon as 2025 highly highly unlikely, imagine the pay increase that the pilots would have to get. Going from 4 pilots to 2 pilots seems like a massive increase in workload! Will need a lot higher pay and also instead of 84 hours a month I expect to only fly 42, it will be incredibly fatiguing and lonely so will also require a lot more leave and excellent health cover to ensure the utmost physical and mental fitness of crews.

Pay decrease you mean? Terms and conditions can only get worse from here. Rosters will get busier and pay will reduce. The crystal ball guarantees it.

I used to look into crystal balls.... But I saw no future in it!

I wonder what the RT/PC would look like. Not to mention ALC and CRM renewals.
ALC, would the checker be at home or with you sitting on the floor as there’s only one seat.
No PM sector, also just let the A/P do the hard bits, EFTO, HYD sys faults. FMG failures… I’m sure they’ve covered every thing.
The only hard bit would be answering the silly questions, like how many lights would you see at 200’ or do you need the F/O’s A/P disconnect switch
The concept is good but I think we’re still some 20 - 30 years away when the likes of CX would be a past memory.

In a system like this, you are the PM.
You are not to touch anything unless AI tells you to do so.

LLLQNH

Ok this can either be a troll comment, or someone who hasn't yet realised how the aviation industry is going.

Jnr380

But the computer crashes much less than human drivers. The data is to Tesla’s benefit. Bad example.

30 ✖️ ~ 250 = 7500 😳
Next question ??

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...tigation-in-us

tolip1

Tesla cars have still crashed in Autopilot mode.

Oasis

There will be a camera watching the single pilot at all times. Guaranteed. Daily post flight Debriefing via zoom.

Crikey, I'd better learn to stop pickin' my nose when I'm alone and bored...

As a non A350 driver, can someone expand on the auto TCAS and auto rapid descent functions.

On another note the 777X will no longer have a TAC it will have full time beta yaw stability which cannot be failed ie it’ll be like trying to fail the ailerons so a V1 cut will be a non event.

Safer planes = cheaper (less) pilots sadly.

And then you have a lightning strike at rotation and suddenly the system is off and no pilot is aware what to expect anymore?

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit in on a number of recruitment sims a few years ago. It was very interesting to watch. People would put the wrong rudder in, turn the wrong way, even watched something very similar to the Fedex Olympic trail departure. Will computers make it safer? Yes but what happens when the computer gets covid?

Avinthenews

Av, both the 330 & 350 have auto TCAS. It literally just flies the RA.

Auto Emerg. Descent on the 350, simple version: press AED button, pull speedbrake. If you don’t respond to a high cab. altitude (unconscious etc), a countdown timer starts then it does it for you. Descends at VMO-5 to 40nm Grid Mora corrected for temp/isa, turns right to intcpt a ~ 3nm offset, squawks 7700, points TCAS below. Interrupts the whole thing for TCAS if necessary. Works a treat.

Both types have yaw rate control for EFATO, not TAC. 350 also applies aileron deflection on operating side to control yaw.

Less Hair

But how is that different from a lightning strike on any other FBW aircraft. The time that a pilot's hand was mechanically tied directly to control surfaces was left behind at some point in the 80's. And it's been proven very safe.

Adding an entirely predictable profile (engine out at V1) to the existing suite of FBW trickery (alpha floors, turbulence damping, ailerons pretending they're flaps....) is going to improve flight safety. Auto go arounds are next, and they will be mandated by the airlines as human performance on those is appalling.

Auto goaround would probably result in fewer attempts to ‘push’ the landing, as some don’t seem to plan to go-around.
Would also be helped by actually quickly briefing the go-around, but that’s another issue..

The aircraft decides and not the pilots?

Interesting thread evolution… looks like the inevitability of a pilotless passenger aircraft is dawning on upon us. The journey towards that goal will begin with reducing numbers of crew on the aircraft and the de-skilling of the profession.

I recall the utter bliss when CPDLC first arrived, no more bloody HF and then it occurred to me that there was no reason why the data needed to go through me to be activated. That, to me, spelled the beginning of the end of flying as a profession. Since then every subsequent improvement in technology has made the pilot ever more more redundant. Along the way safety has improved by orders of magnitude.

Totally unmanned is still a fair way off, but nonetheless inevitable.