Airbus + Cathay working on Single Pilot during Cruise with A350
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 608
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Airbus + Cathay working on Single Pilot during Cruise with A350
https://www.reuters.com/business/aer...ul-2021-06-16/
Airbus and Cathay will start tests on having only one pilot in the cockpit during Cruise on A350. Target a launch date of 2025.
Airbus and Cathay will start tests on having only one pilot in the cockpit during Cruise on A350. Target a launch date of 2025.
Think AF447. Relaxed cruise and iced up probes but only one junior guy in the cockpit to deal with it now?
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: SW1A 2AA
Posts: 208
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What a load of old pony. Where exactly is the benefit? I pity the poor sod who finds themselves alone with a rapid decompression over high terrain in the middle of the night. Some things work just fine as they are. The wheel is another great example.
Take some broken cockpit window.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 608
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Its a simple calculation at the end of the day. If the safety engineers can show that the aircraft can safely be flown in cruise with only one pilot, and all failures can be handled by that one pilot, there's no reason from a technical stand point why this project isn't feasible. I think that most of the opposition will come from the human factors side of things. That's the purpose of the next few years of testing. Ie. To prove that its doable.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 608
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Those are the sort of things safety engineers and risk management processes need to address. Once they can successfully show that they have a method of dealing with that and then the other issues then the soulless and cold world of aviation regulation might allow it.
At the end of the day aviation only exists because the parties involved have proved that they can mitigate the risks involved with it to make it acceptable to the traveling public. There's no reason why they couldn't do it again.
Remember, the aviation community was in arms when the flight engineer was replaced by computers.
At the end of the day aviation only exists because the parties involved have proved that they can mitigate the risks involved with it to make it acceptable to the traveling public. There's no reason why they couldn't do it again.
Remember, the aviation community was in arms when the flight engineer was replaced by computers.
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Neither here or there
Posts: 316
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Single pilot for cruise. "For how long at a time?" is the question. Are they implying the other one gets to nod off during that time? What if one needs to answer a call (from nature)?
Good luck Cathay/Airbus but all that's going to happen is that pilots involved in the trial will simply report how tired/exposed/compromised they felt. I can save you 5 years of research now.
Good luck Cathay/Airbus but all that's going to happen is that pilots involved in the trial will simply report how tired/exposed/compromised they felt. I can save you 5 years of research now.
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Netherlands
Age: 46
Posts: 343
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Less Hair
Actually, not having a second officer there would have prevented the accident. First of all he would not have pulled on the stick and second of all the captain would have been able to take his seat much more quickly...
Actually, not having a second officer there would have prevented the accident. First of all he would not have pulled on the stick and second of all the captain would have been able to take his seat much more quickly...
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: London
Posts: 66
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I don’t see the big savings in this kind of operation, but if you could reduce the cockpit to a single pilot cockpit then I see it would mean a lot in savings. But to have a single pilot cockpit in passenger flights, would mean that the A/C automation level would be able to do everything by itself from Thrust Levers is advanced on take off until it reaches taxi speed after landing, due to incapacitation of the pilot on board at the most critical point of the flight phase. And then you can ask yourself if the pilot is relevant at all.
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: s england
Posts: 283
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Safety engineers risk assessing 😂 That’ll be fine then.
The aircraft would have to be safe with no pilots at the controls at least for a short period of time to allow for a pee break, nose bleed,vomit etc.
The aircraft would have to be safe with no pilots at the controls at least for a short period of time to allow for a pee break, nose bleed,vomit etc.
Why still use two engines then? One will do.
