Originally Posted by
hurricanechaser
I proposed the idea to this thread to encourage group discussion as well as generate ideas for a Movie I am writing.
In this movie a disgruntled and underpaid software engineer that created the Unmanned airliner's artificial intelligence decides to sell the software technology to a terrorist organization. This allows the terrorists to hijack every single unmanned airliner. This includes 600+ airplanes in my story. I'm just looking for a realistic timeline for this to take place.
Sorry if the idea of terrorist hijackings offends but the movies that sell tickets have some kind of messed up characters trying to cause havoc.
Technology-wise it's entirely possible right now if you're willing to spend huge amounts of money and accept a reduction in safety margins in those areas where human adaptability cannot be modeled by artificial intelligence (unforseen mechaniccal problems like Sioux City or the art of Wx avoidance using a radar and ATC hints).
For fiction you could go with 2025.