Drone alone: how airliners may lose their pilots

Drone alone: how airliners may lose their pilots

www.newscientist.com

WOULD you fly in an airliner knowing there were no pilots in the cockpit? This is no mere hypothetical question. The US Federal Aviation Administration this month kicked off what could be the first step in a journey towards the full automation of the airliners we all travel on.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Unmanned Vs Manned Combat Aircraft

The goal on both sides of the Atlantic is to allow UAVs to share civilian airspace, rather than clearing a section of airspace for every UAV flight, as happens now.

If they are to share civilian airspace, uncrewed planes will need to be able to sense the presence of other aircraft and take evasive action. Air traffic controllers would also need robust ways to manage flocks of UAVs - whose remote pilots may be hundreds of kilometres away.

Other uses for unmanned flights include border monitoring, crop monitoring, search and rescue and surveillance.

Among commercial airlines, cargo transports will be the first to loose their pilots.

"The cargo airlines want very much to lose their pilots. The money that would be saved in salary and benefits, including retirement and healthcare costs, is pretty staggering," says Mary Cummings

But what happens in an emergency?

"But what happens in unpredictable circumstances? Human creativity can avert serious problems that have never arisen before." And while UAVs will have a remote pilot, "what happens if the wireless link to the pilot gets lost?" he asks.

What happens when your engine sucks in a flight of sea birds like happened to Chesley Sullenberger? Who or what will tell the plane that the safest/ best place to land is the Hudson River?

www.newscientist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 28/6/10 by plumranch]

This is just great. Now terrorist will not have to come to the US to crash planes into building. They can do it by remote control from the other side of the world.
Do not bother telling me the safe guards that will be in place because sooner or later they WILL find a way around them.

It's bad enough when you have illegal immigrants stealing jobs. Now you have uav's taking a pilots job.

Skynet has become self aware.

I dont think this is a very good idea at all. Whats the point in removing the flight crew from commercial airliners? I can understand removing a fighter pilot from a dangerous combat environment, but removing the flight crew from a plane carrying 300+ people? Does not make sense to me.

Also if the plane will be completely automated, will it be able to...say.. land the airplane in the water after the engine goes out in the middle of the Hudson river and position it perfectly to prevent a rapid sink rate so that the passengers can get off board safely?

Lets see a UAV do that!

I wouldn't take that plane. Not a good idea to rely entirely on technology with no human override when people's lives are at stake.

I read somewhere recently that the last generation of pilots has already been born. That's kind of sad.

This will not happen on civilian flights ever.As it is a lot of planes are already automated to an extent where the pilots are there to monitor systems but that is the limit..
There is no point to having fully automated planes for civilian flights with no crew,it's just pointless,it wont save money if thats the problem.We are not all robots yet.
Heres the first attempt.Fail

www.youtube.com...

[edit on 29-6-2010 by 12voltz]

reply to post by 12voltz


LOL thats pretty funny, I had to embed this for you (in english this time)

reply to post by GeminiSky


Thanks .I watched it with the sound down ,didnt realise it was in another language.Just go's to show that they were looking at this idea 30 odd years ago,now if they could do the same with the cabin crew..

reply to post by plumranch


By 2030, commercial passengers will routinely fly in pilotless planes..

The kind of artificial intelligence that would be required to fully automate commercial aviation today is not far out of hand. Certain aircraft, the B-2 for example, require three onboard control computers just to keep it stable. I predict that it will take only a few more years before the first completely automated commercial aircraft prototype will be ready to roll out of its hangar. The main issue here, however, is neither the technology available for aircraft nor the task of preparing airports for the change, for an ideal design would not require anything special to be modified in airports, but a more social ease. The fact is that even if Boeing came out with a line of fully automated commercial aircraft, no matter how much they guaranteed its safety, no airline would be ready to invest in it for the simple fact that few passengers would feel safe traveling in one of these planes, even if their fears are unbiased.

[edit on 29/6/10 by plumranch]

"The cargo airlines want very much to lose their pilots. The money that would be saved in salary and benefits, including retirement and healthcare costs, is pretty staggering,"

It's always about cutting corners isn't it? These douchenozzles would fly loads of passengers into the side of a cliff if they could make money off the insurance.

That bothers me tremendously. I don't want any aircraft flying without a human pilot whether I am on it or not! Every day I listen to airplanes fly over or near my house. After the crash in Clarence Center last year, I murmer a little prayer each time I hear one go over.

Originally posted by fixer1967
This is just great. Now terrorist will not have to come to the US to crash planes into building. They can do it by remote control from the other side of the world.
Do not bother telling me the safe guards that will be in place because sooner or later they WILL find a way around them.

I agree... surely UAV hacking is a evil of our future. I can only expect at some point the current "predator" drones are going to be hacked by the "opposition" and used against coalition forces.

www.cnn.com...

Iraqi insurgents hacked Predator drone feeds, U.S. official indicates

December 17, 2009

Imagine where society will be when "they" hack the controls.

Sri Oracle

[edit on 29-6-2010 by Sri Oracle]

This really applies to most public transportation.

Within 20 years, the buses, subways, rail, and even taxis will all be automated putting numerous people out of work.

Freight will be automated before it, meaning Truck drivers will be thing of the past.

At some point even the mail will be automated in many areas.

Hopefully the film Maximum Overdrive doesn't become some sort of vision of the future.

F. that. perhaps we are turning into a nightmare industrialized world like the romantics feared and such modern scary movies such as metropolis .

I'm all for it. Robots don't get drunk or smoke meth. They don't get distracted. they don't get sleepy. They would be far safer than human pilots. And it's hard to hi-jack a plane when there isn't somone to muscle around. Sure a huge segment of people will be out of work, but that's the way the world spins. Accept it and start training for a new job, becaue it will happen ecentually wether you like it or not.

Some have said you can't imagine why they would even want to get rid of the pilot. That baffels me because my view is the exact polar opposite. Why would you want to keep the pilot?

Wouldnt it be a wonderful time to be of age to retire from this MISERABLE workforce of this generation?? Between this kind of garbage, outsourcing jobs elsewheres, and robots and computers now doing the jobs humans once performed, it seems there will not be ANY American jobs around soon.

Any baby boomers here who are about to retire from the MISERABLE workforce anytime soon should be EXHILARATED. As well as any wealthy folk as well whom do not have to rely on working to survive. The rest of us seem to be SCREWED BAD.



[edit on 29-6-2010 by Baloney]

reply to post by Baloney


I wonder what will be done about it.

Millions of people with nothing to do. Millions of mouths to feed. Millions who cannot pay taxes. Millions who are obese and filled with cancers from all of the crap in our food and water.

The government will try to keep them docile, drugged, and on welfare. They may even introduce drugs and crap into the food and water to make sure they are infertile.

What would a machine do about it?

Using machine logic, they would have to be removed from the system to make the system effecient. Those people will have become unecessary.
A burden on the system the machines run so effeciently. The infertility would not be enough. They would have to be removed from the system like a tumor being cut out.

In other words, culled. Thats just the US. What about the rest of the world? Billions of people with no purpose or place in the world, what would be done with them?

I give it maybe 30 years and then say hello to the Singularity and the Gigadeath War that follows.

The Coming Artilect War
www.forbes.com...

No WAY am I getting into a plane with no human pilot in it. I'd rather take a paddle steamer across the atlantic with nothing but canned chickpeas and a lifevest made out of sillystring to keep me alive.

Seriously, what gives? They can't even manufacture an operating system that is 100% reliable, so unless I'm mistaken, this would be a hackable misadventure, and if Sony's PS3 software glitch that reset the dates of millions of machines a few months ago is anything to go by, this idea hasn't even got legs yet.

Just another idea by some corporate sleazehound who wants to save money, and to hell with the consequences.

reply to post by 12voltz

This will not happen on civilian flights ever.As it is a lot of planes are already automated to an extent where the pilots are there to monitor systems but that is the limit..

I'll add my prediction since I'm an active pilot and hang out with airline pilots:

I have often been in planes landed on an auto land system. Of course the pilot is there to take over should a "go around" command by the tower be given.

The amount of automation in the cockpit is increasing almost exponentially esp in comparison to what I had when I started flying. And that will be the trend.

I think more and more the pilot in command will be able to allow the automation to do the flying. In the back you will not be able to tell the difference.

In the end the pilot may be more of a flight monitor. But I can't see full automation with no pilot during our lifetimes. The pilot will always have to be there to take over when the flight of ducks flies into the engine or when there is a computer glitch.