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Old 05-19-2010 | 07:59 PM
  #3  
Whistlin' Dan
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The tactical and operational advantages of a military UAV don't translate very well to commercial aviation. "Unmanned" is not the same as "unpiloted." The only possible incentive to develop unmanned commercial aircraft would be to lower aircrew costs, and those costs are going to be whatever they will be, whether the pilot is sitting at FL 370 or at a desk in SysOps. Factor in the costs of building and maintaining the infrastructure necessary to support long-distance UAV ops, and any projected savings in crew cost starts to evaporate pretty quickly.

It will probably come to pass, but not in 10 years.
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