Would you fly in a plane without a pilot aboard?

Quote: reno

And what do terms like “automatic” and “autopilot” mean, anyway? Autopilot is simply a tool, along with many other tools available to the crew. You still need to tell it what to do, how to do it and when to do it. And although it frees the pilot from having to have his or her hands physically on the control wheel (or sidestick) or thrust levers, this is only a fraction of what the act of “flying” entails. The autopilot is not flying the plane. The crew is flying the plane, through the autoflight system.

We should be more careful about distinguishing between the use of the term "automated" and "automatic". Very few things are automatic, but many things are automated.

I suspect that this may work better in the South. There are not nearly as many nasty surprises in flying once you take winter out of the equation.

I think automated/automatic/remote is a large security risk without a flight-qualified pilot on-board.

Quote: 98Clubs

I think automated/automatic/remote is a large security risk without a flight-qualified pilot on-board.

Article on new FAA rule raising requirements for a co-pilot from 250 to1500 hours.

The proposal is the first increase in the requirement to become a co-pilot since 1973, when the F.A.A. raised the minimum number of hours to 250 from 200.

It seems to go against the idea of replacing a co-pilot with automated procedures.

Check out the graph in this article illustrating pilot error over the decades.

I believe within 30 years you will fly without a pilot and there will not be a choice. Drones are already approved by the FAA and by 2020 there will 30,000 in our skies, public and private. There are already drones now with wingspans as big as a jet right now. It is either going to be fly in a drone or don't fly.

It does cause a dilemma because you know a pilot has to decide to crash the plane because he is in it. Though, if someone wants to murder someone on the drone, they will not have to sacrifice their life to crash it.

The bottom line is going to be the skill of the pilot is going to be minimal compared to the savings to the drone operators. Though, they got rid of the concord because of fuel costs, so who even knows how flights will be still economical if we can't use fuel to run them.

And what about computer driven cars.. I think there'll still need to be a driver ready to take over at any time, because what about in climate weather? Plus I'd think about the legality. If I'm drunk behind the wheel I still get a DUI even if the car is driving itself.

I wouldn't fly in plan controlled by a computer. Given the number of exceptions I can produce in relatively simple enterprise code, I'm not convinced we could engineer software robust enough. This is just my own paranoia, as I'm sure they'd be using older, more solid technologies.