No pilot?

[Brian Abraham]

Son: Dad, why do airliners always have two pilots?

Dad: One has to prevent the other from doing stupid things

Son: Which one is doing the stupid things?

[Ancient Observer]

EASA

Given that EASA will have first go at "single pilot cruise certificaton", and given they they know less about that subject than Airbus, how would EASA deal with it? Have they actually got any test pilots yet? (Other than the usual bunch of Air france boys and girls "seconded")

[Microburst2002]

No way!

Denti
are you sure?
When I read it I first thought it was a joke.
But somehow it makes sense.
In the early days, airplanes had up to 5 guys in the cockpit (pilot, copilot, engineer, RTF officer and navigation officer). And now we have only pilot, copilot.
So why not just pilot?
They would save a lot of money.
They can put one pilot and one... "assistant pilot"? or "airplane systems supervisor"? or just a pilot and a flight engineer!

Denti, your were kidding, weren't you?

[Clandestino]

why not just pilot?

Because the loss of redundancy would be much greater than when F/E, navigator and radio operator were lost. FWIW some airlines allow one of the pilots to take a nap during cruise, but usually there has to be a CC on the deck to ensure that the other pilot doesn't nod off too.

Provided that the rumor about A350 is true, Airbus has no chance of making it unless some certifying authority makes a colossal mistake.

[kenhughes]

I'm with crippen - that Dockland Light Railway used to scare the bejeezus out of me.

I remember seeing a Panorama program many years ago, when UK TV was still black and white. They were doing a story on the Comet or Trident and the typical BEA/BOAC pilot (white handle-bar moustache etc), was asked if planes would ever be able to fly themselves - sans pilot.

"They could do that now", he replied, "but the travelling public wouldn't accept it". How right he was.

Now if they ever trained monkies to steer it to the runway and press the 'Go' button...