Originally Posted by
hurricanechaser
A trillion dollars would not be neccessary. The total cost of the Saturn V program in todays inflation adjusted dollars is $43 billion. Our GDP today stands at 14 trillion. A program like the Saturn V would be less than 1% of GDP.
The government could easily finances a 43 billion dollar program if its spread out over the ten year period that the Saturn V took.
Now lets look at the cost of the Pilot Population. Average salaries cost a company $60,000 for a pilot. If we take your 100,000 pilot estimate. That's an annual cost of $6 billion just to pay salaries alone.
If the airlines could save $6 billion a year the program would pay for itself in 7-8 years if it costs $43 billion.
Obviously a program like this would start in the military first. They always will be the test bed for new technologies. However regulatory wise , it shouldn't be a problem if the airplane can think, react and use its artificial intelligence to communicate its intentions and fly the plane like a human could. If the plane can talk to air traffic controllers it can be handled the same way a human operated plane would be handled.
As far as infrastructure goes. I thought we already had airports and runways? Am I missing something here?
You have a gross lack of depth in your understanding of engineering and how the infrastructure works. $6 Billion? You are out of your mind! $600 billion wouldn't even begin to be enough. It took more than $6B just to design the 787!
Every step of the way from gate-to-gate requires human interaction. Unless the airplane can talk on the radio and think just like a human you will need automation interfaces for pushback, taxi, ATC, enroute separation, and gate arrival. None of these things exist
Not sure where you get your numbers, but you CANNNOT, with any technology we have today or have in the works, build an automated airliner for the same cost as a manned airliner. This is due to the extreme levels of reliability and redundancy which would be required to achieve current safety metrics. The only comparable system from an engineering and manufacturing perspective is a comm or spy satellite ($$$$).
Sorry, but the military is not going to help you out. We have gained great operational utility out of the unmanned fleet but it is not cheaper (yet) than manned systems. They have also lost about 50% of the fleet to accidents in ten years (and a tiny handful to hostile fire).
The military has ZERO interest in un-piloted pax aircraft with the possible exception of last-resort tactical medvac (I am in a position to know that for sure). The military operates a relatively small number of pax transports, and will certainly not send soldiers into a combat zone without a live pilot up front. They know better than that, the public backlash following the first crash would be catastrophic. Cargo, yes, but only in very controlled environments. It's going to be up to the airlines and boeing to pave the way for pax and cargo in civilian airspace.