A study has been launched into the feasibility of building and operating large commercial aircraft that do not need pilots.
The study is known as the Innovative Future Air System and is being conducted by the European Union under the guidance of French aeronautics agency, Onera.
"The goal is to do something very different: no pilot, no control, only passengers, operated like an unmanned air vehicle," the study's manager, Claude Le-Tallec, told CASA's Flight Safety Australia magazine.
"We will see if it's possible to make this change to this system and then try to create a road map."
In addition to technical issues, the study will also consider how passengers would feel about travelling in an airliner without a pilot. - Travelpress travel news
I'm the father of a young airplane pilot. Through his training, I've learned much about aircraft, commercial flying, and automated systems on aircraft. There is no way in the world I would ever get on a pilotless aircraft even knowing that aircraft by and large fly now themselves.Humans are capable of making judgments, machines are not. Keep in mind that the EU are the same people who brought us the Airbus which, many pilots I speak with, don't like to fly.
Oh, come on guys! No drunk pilots, no highjacker storming the cockpit (there will be no cockpit) having a big window to see where you're going, instead of wondering... surely you can see the positives!
I am an airline pilot. Have been flying since 1979 and with a major airline since 1987 (prior military). The big problem, as mentioned, is no one to make a judgement call. Do you divert for an emergency? Go around those thunderclouds building? Miss the approach for high winds? etc. Remember, Airbus built an airplane, the A-320, that was so automated that it flew into the trees during a "show" flight. The pilot tried to level off at 50 feet to fly down the runway for pictures and when he tried to climb a 100 feet to clear the trees the automated A-320 went into a "landing" mode and flew into the trees. The plane doesn't care if something is in it's way, if it thinks it should land, it will. There was nothing the pilot could do. Still want a French pilotless plane?
Sure, bugs have tobe worked out before the general public ever flies in one. As a private pilot, fixed wing with instrument, Civil Air Patrol time, I understand what you say. Would what you say make pilot flown aircraft safer? Have there been no pilot error commercial crashes?
thankyou papaflamingo for putting it so well. After some of the automation problems with the A320 I shutter whenever I have to fly in one. I would say that it would take the French and Airbus to come up with this cockamamie idea. Rest assured that if pilotless aircraft were ever to be the norm, and I'm alive to see it (which I doubt) I'll dirve or take a train. If I have to leave the continent, it will be a boat or I'll wait for the bridge. Has there been pilot error? Sure but I believe much less than is reported. It's much easier to blame someone who can't defend themselves than to admit your plane (or the plane the government has sanctioned) was to blame. I'll always trust human judgement over EU automation anytime. Sorry for rambling but this subject strikes a nerve.
The Concorde went from the worlds safest airliner to the worst with only one crash, and led to its untimely death. And only from a part dropped off a departing airliner. Would you fly on the plane with the worlds worst safety record?
I think you are missing the point. I konw that aircraft are now flown by automation for all intents and purposes the entire flight. In fact I feel better about that since they are such complicated pieces of machinery. My point is that there needs to be a human, preferably an intelligent human, with the power to override the automation, in place to make final judgment. Something no machine can do. With this I rest and get back to chatting about cruises.
