Bula an SO is a cheap FTL extender and nothing more than that...my airline uses two captains, others use two SFOs.

Please point to the piece of electronic wizardry, not already fitted, that can do that.

Pilotless recon drones fair enough, they cant kill anyone except those unlucky enough to be underneath them when windows locks up.

But airliners that carry hundreds off pax need at least one person onboard trained to cancel the spyware popups:}

If they GD was really keen on cost cutting he could install MS FlightSim on his planes and have some nerdy 14 year old with bad acne can sit and 'play' all the way from MML to HKG for no more than KFC or Maccas would pay :E

Ive never been able to master the keyboard controls for it, or even been able to bank at a constant rate on it, yet ive seen ppl who know the FMC inside out who cant even do a 1 in 60 or a fuel calculation on the fly in the air :cool:
Saves on training i guess:} :E :suspect:

Turbz:cool:

with flight sim you can also use the 'pause' button :}

Unmanned Pax Flights??
 

G'day 'AIRSIC',
Not to mention.....
......."SESSION TIMEOUT".........
OOOOPPPSSS!!!!!!!
But, not to worry chaps and chapesses, help is on the way......
I hear that nuumeroous people from places, (like Singapore), are soon to be coming to our fine shores to train as
......P I L O T S......
Why?
Because it is CHEAPER HERE, and, THEY CAN!!! (Daddy pays??):}
So, OUR pilots of the future may be like budgies around a waterhole at sunset in the outback............cheep cheep cheep!!!!!!
Who NEEDS an 'expensive' computer????:=
Let's face it.....In the fullness of time.....will ASBK be there? And, wot of YMMB? YPJT?? ABAF?? Shopping Malls Housing Estates???
Our POLITICIANS DON'T APPEAR TO CARE...SO FAR!!!
:yuk: :yuk:

EITHER

By the time robots have taken over the jobs we'll all be out of work and therefore too poor to afford airline tickets!!:ugh:

OR

Given that Airbus pilots can't override the computer they have already taken over!:\

Yeah maybe not, but who is the captain going to rely on to get the girls in the bars to talk to us!

:} TL

Just read an article about uncrewed flights and thought I'd check out what fellow ppruners had to say on the subject (there HAD to be a thread on this ...and obviously there is:) )

I'm sure that there is currently no problem for trains/trams (i.e. any other means of transport on rails) to be completely automated however they are still manned. So why should it be different for a/c? Especially when flying is so much more complex than traintravel.

I think, as other have said before, that it will be a long time before the public is willing to enter a uncrewed a/c. And even MORE so should the "pilot" be controlling the aircraft from the ground ("What?I'm supposed to get on a plane that not even the pilot trusts?!")....

For that matter why do we need Flight Attendants surely airlines could have drink dispensing machines etc.

...Then again, the idea of someone getting it on in an aircraft toilet with a drinks dispensing machine is just f:mad:in sick. :E

:ok: :E

I remember seeing a really crap movie on this very topic, a pissed of ex-employee hacks into the aircraft in flight and takes over. Hell of a lot easier then sending a suicide bomber to do the job, plus you get to use him again :ugh:
While it is true that most accidents are in someway human error, it is also true that more accidents are prevented by flight crew then caused.

its not the aircraft that I would worry about, its ATC. Whats gonna happen when they give the flying robot "circle to join downwind to let traffic backtracking on the active runway depart" instructions, as the flying PC passes over the Final Approach Fix..will the Intel chip have the cooling system to cope. (I know I didn't..especially when the instructor is busy pulling the #1 engine :\ :\ ...Oh well I guess the PC wouldn't do any worse than I did:} )

Not too long ago trains had at least two people up front, three if there was much shunting to be done, now 3000 tons of heavy metal travel from Brissy to MEL with only one occupant in the cab, 'technology' made it possible.

I wonder if we will see RPT flights with only one pilot and technology to take over and divert and land if/when the fertiliser hits the prop?

I bet a dollar that we do - sometime...:8

What about automation in another area - ATC.

I see technology reducing the reliance on ATC for sequencing, collision avoidance and terrain avoidance before pilots get replaced in the cockpit by remote control.

We already have technology like TCAS, this technology will see advances to further to help with "see" and avoid and also help with sequencing.

There has already been work done on using track offset and GNSS technology for enroute navagation allowing one route or corridor to be used in both directions enabling climb and descent.

The GPS terrain mapping technology can allow flight in IMC conditions below MSA. Look at the stuff developed by Chelton that is/was being used in the Capstone project in Alaska.

I see less people on the ground before we see less people in the air, even if it is just for marketing reasons, i.e. the PAX demanding human presence up front.

Whose arse did you pull that from?

Last I checked, Brisbane - Melbourne superfreighters still have two buggers up the front. A driver and a driver's assistant.

With the current state of the art in Artificial Intelligence (AI), I can't see it happening any time soon, although it will happen.

At the moment, the largest users of UAV technology are the military. These aircraft are by and large guided by human operators, effectively flight sim pilots, with an aircraft at the end of the signal. Where these aircraft will ultimately prove their strength is in their ability to exceed the limitations imposed on human pilots (eg. high acceleration and G forces, not having to write a letter to a grieving relative etc).

To some extent we are already seeing the use of AI in missile technology.

What they are not currently able to do with AI guided aircraft, is to "think" outside the paramaters they are programmed with. AI is unable to deal with situations that they have not been programmed to deal with.

Neural network technology can allow AI to "learn" from situations (to some degree). If an AI stuffs up an approach for example, it remembers what didn't work, and does better next time. If it leaves a smoking crater in the end of the runway, the data can be uploaded to another AI, which will not make the same mistake, and will learn from every subsequent mistake it makes as well.

So in theory, an AI could learn to fly a plane. It would depend on the technology advancing considerably.

Communication would be difficult, but once again, voice recognition technology is slowly advancing.

In reality, the biggest hurdle would be to persuade the punters that flying as a passenger under computer control is as safe, or safer, than flying under human control. Of course freight, coastwatching, survey work etc. would have less of a problem with this.

At this point, it is nowhere near safe enough, but one day, who knows?

People are fickle. As soon as enough people consider it safe enough, everybody else will follow, especially if they are able to save $1.50 in the process.