The problem I have with this article is that it only talks about all of the successes with UAVs. It doesn't mention the failures ... more specifically, the extremely high failure rate for UAVs in the military.

Interestingly, it glosses over one of the biggest drawbacks to UAVs currently flying when it mentions that the Air Force is training TWICE as many ground operators than regular pilots ... yet the dirty secret is that there are more airplanes than UAVs.

Then, it says that airline pilots sit with their arms crossed during automatic landings. Operationally, I've performed two dozen or so automatic landings ... ok, Hal did. I just sat there with my hands on the controls. Most were practice for my procedural currency but also for the testing of the aircraft itself. Of all of those automatic landings, at least three of them we had to intervene because the landing was not safe and this was in good weather with good winds. Again, another convenient fact left out are the strict wind/weather requirements for automatic landings.

Considering we just had one of the safest years in commercial aviation: until autopilots can land jets in bad winds/weather, consistently, every time, while being able to see, avoid, and take counter measures to birds, traffic, terrain, and hazardous weather --- all the while doing it cheaper than two bubbas sitting up front ... this notion of commercial UAVs is just a fantasy.

One last thing, the DOD UAVs had a virus on their systems. And the DOD IT systems are probably some of the most protected systems in the world yet they can be hacked. Forget Sept. 11, imagine if a group of hackers were able to successfully hack into UAVs or the systems controlling them. Very scary yet a very real threat.