Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
"A pilotless airliner is going to come; it's just a question of when."
James Albaugh, the president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airlines
“Five years ago we passed the point where automation was there to back up pilots.” Flight Safety Foundation CEO Bill Voss
"Airbus is proud of the fact, they like to say that their plane is 'pilot-proof." Aviation lawyer James Healy Pratt
Skyhigh
The last statements are not true yet. Anyone in high school today should have an aviation career essentially free of unmanned airliners as a threat to your job.
The first statement is true but the operative word is "when". My informed opnion is 100 years and I'm educated and experienced in government and technology, neither of which are ready to to deploy a COST-EFFECTIVE unmanned passenger plane. Even cargo is a long ways off since it has to operate in the same airspace as manned aircraft. The military is already using unmanned cargo helos, but only in war zones where they own the airspace and the risk equation is entirely different.