A few weeks ago, my seatmate on an airplane was a fantastically interesting guy who’s been flying airplanes since he was a kid. He has flown Air Force cargo planes, fire-fighting planes, and is currently employed as a long-haul pilot for a West Coast cargo company. (FWIW, my oldest brother is also a former Air Force pilot; here’s what he’s flying these days.)
My seatmate told me that within 5 or 10 years, it may well be common to fly on a commercial airliner with no pilot in the cockpit. Instead, the plane would be controlled from the ground by someone who’s half air-traffic controller and half kid-with-a-remote-control-airplane. The technology, he told me, is pretty much already in place: about 80% of commercial airliner takeoffs and landings are already remote-controlled (and it is the human landings that are the bumpy ones, he said, performed mostly so that pilots can keep up their landing chops). I assume that one “pilot” on the ground could easily fly more than one plane at a time.
Unmanned aircraft have been around for awhile. Think of the Predator drone, which the U.S. military uses reliably for attack and reconnaissance purposes. And the U.K. Ministry of Defense recently conducted a two-hour test flight of an airliner in which the pilot was on board (for legal purposes only) but controlled the plane via a computer in the back of the plane.
But here’s my question. Even if the U.S. airline companies could fire most of their pilots (a big “if,” I am guessing, because of pilots’ unions), would you be willing to be a passenger on an unmanned airplane? September 11 notwithstanding, my feeling is that so many passengers are so skittish about flying that one of their greatest comforts is the thought that, Well, the pilots don’t want to die either. Once that comfort is removed, would people still be willing to get on the plane?
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Funny. I am currently being trained to become an air traffic controller and they keep telling us how in the future more and more parts of our job will be handled by on-board systems and our workload will be much lighter (i.e. our jobs less needed!)
It will be interesting to see how air navigation evolves: less dependent on ground systems?, totally controlled from the ground?, totally autonomous and unmanned on both sides? (I wouldn’t be too comfortable with this last option, but I guess that’s just the conservative me)
Funny. I am currently being trained to become an air traffic controller and they keep telling us how in the future more and more parts of our job will be handled by on-board systems and our workload will be much lighter (i.e. our jobs less needed!)
It will be interesting to see how air navigation evolves: less dependent on ground systems?, totally controlled from the ground?, totally autonomous and unmanned on both sides? (I wouldn’t be too comfortable with this last option, but I guess that’s just the conservative me)
The mystique of flying is past. Its nothing but a sky bus now. Airlines have stripped glamour out of it already. Why not remote planes?
No drunk pilots, reduced pilot error…
But is this really meaningful? How many passengers a year does a pilot fly? Spread the cost of the pilot over all those tickets and I don’t see how this can impact prices or the bottom line very significantly.
The mystique of flying is past. Its nothing but a sky bus now. Airlines have stripped glamour out of it already. Why not remote planes?
No drunk pilots, reduced pilot error…
But is this really meaningful? How many passengers a year does a pilot fly? Spread the cost of the pilot over all those tickets and I don’t see how this can impact prices or the bottom line very significantly.
Check out this fatal aviation accidents statistics:
http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm
What if you could get rid of human error?
Check out this fatal aviation accidents statistics:
http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm
What if you could get rid of human error?
Obligatory Terminator reference:
Sarah Connor: [narrating] Dyson listened while the Terminator laid it all down: Skynet, Judgment Day, the history of things to come. It’s not everyday you hear that you’re responsible for 3 billion deaths. He took it pretty well.
Miles Dyson: I feel like I’m gonna throw up.
Obligatory Terminator reference:
Sarah Connor: [narrating] Dyson listened while the Terminator laid it all down: Skynet, Judgment Day, the history of things to come. It’s not everyday you hear that you’re responsible for 3 billion deaths. He took it pretty well.
Miles Dyson: I feel like I’m gonna throw up.