Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Not in our lifetime, from an engineering standpoint it's possible but hideously expensive. It would take a government-funded manhattan project, which ain't in the cards.
Total electrical failure highlights one of the engineering challenges...you would need MASSIVE redundancy which means weight and money. Then you would have severe operational challenges...almost all systems MEL's would be no-go items with an auto-airliner. Not only would you need extra redundant system components they would have to be built and maintained like spacecraft...in a clean room.
An automated airliner is comparable in engineering scope to a communication or spy satellite...which can cost about $1 billion.
I agree with you that it might be far off, maybe 100 years into the future. But then again my grandfather saw Mule to Moon. Literally he saw horseback and buggy, before the first car hit the road, to a Saturn V rocket being launched to the moon. He was born before the Wright brothers decided to come up with this contraption called a self powered airplane and lived to see regular scheduled shuttle launches.
My point is this is definitely possible in at least my lifetime to see. The problem with the Government implementing the ADS-B system is the GOVERNMENT. Give me some like minded individuals with a can do attitude and this will be possible.
When I implement this unmanned airplane to the Public. I will first go the route of doing military cargo operations first like RickAir7777 mentioned. Then move on to selling an unmanned airplane for International routes and civilian cargo routes that are the most profitable. Before trickling down to domestic routes.
Why Not???