NEXUS: Pondering the Furture of Flying
 

It is too easy to confuse threads. But there must be a way to bring concepts together for the betterment of aviation and aviators.

For example, it would be hard to bring the Bolivian 727 and the BA 777 into the threads already started on those subjects.

but we see two planes, built some 30 plus years apart crashing...and all survive.

while we don't know the reasons just yet, computers and the 727 can't be considered. 777 and fly by cable can't be considered.

But it is time to have a thread the ponders the future...the future of:

1. Man and flying

2. Machines and flying

3. Management and flying.

The nexus between man and machine. Are engineers designing men out of the cockpit?

Is it still better to have the man make the machinery move, or take his hand away from the lever and let the computer move it?

I for one think that presenting a man with information is a better way to go, to keep him part of the loop rather than really trust the machine to do it, itself.

I hope this thread will be a lively one. Will we be replaced/? I'm sure tellers in banks didn't fully understand how they would be affected by ATM (automatic teller machines).

Let the thread begin.

You say that bank tellers have been replaced by ATM's, and yet every high street I walk along has banks staffed with real people. The fact is that people in general don't trust machines. So I can't ever see the pilotless aircraft coming to fruition. Technically it's possible, of course it is, UAV's pretty much look after themselves, but I really don't see the public getting on an aircraft that doesn't have a human sitting in the pointy end.

Give it another 10 years and see if potential pilots are willing to make a loss for the first 5 years of their careers and go on to earn far less than people in other skilled professions (or Jade Goodie) Data linked flight control from the ground and landed by the landing pilot/cruise cabin crew....

Not for a considerable time, if ever. In passenger aircraft, that is.

Military aircraft are already on that route, but that's a completely different story. There you have real mission benefits from not having to worry about keeping the pilot safe and alive.

In passenger aircraft, you still must provide for passenger safety, so the airframe must anyway be a safe place for human beings. And looking out at the weather I think there will be quite some time before a computer can match a human landing in icy crosswind conditions. No to forget the comfort factor to the pax.
Just my €0.02 :)

Nexus? My favourite word as in Nexus Mustang. And no need to worry about

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...r_24_Nexus.jpg

Sorry for the OT.