Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
As I have mentioned elsewhere I do not believe that pilots will disappear from passenger fights altogether but will still be there arms folded watching the show making their 35K per year. Automation has been rapidly invading the flight deck over the last 20 years.
Side A says never and side B says eventually. I think the short term reality lies in between. We will still have pilots up front but they will not be flying the plane anymore but serve as a back up system. Hand flying will be exclusively reserved for the flight simulator as an emergency procedure. Pilots will be paid a pittance and abused as management sees fit.
{snip}
Modern airliners will not need to have that switch. The pilots will just be allowed to sleep. (kind of like it is now.
)
If I were to place a wager, this is where my money would go. Speaking of sleeping, here's a link for you:
Meet Captain Ikeda ANA Check Pilot that can command and review while sleeping. - YouTube
Originally Posted by
rickair7777
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.
Sorry, but you're
way behind the times. UAV's are patrolling the U.S. border with Mexico:
CNN.com news Drones silently patrol U.S. borders Predator B UAV unmanned aerial vehicle.mp4 - YouTube
Granted, one could make the argument that is a war zone, but nonetheless it's here in the U.S. AOPA is busy trying to control the threat of UAV's to civilian aircraft - they know this is not far around the corner:
Unmanned aircraft tests must ‘do no harm’
There is a great deal of interest in UAV's for not only law enforcement, but also pipeline/powerline patrol (which will remove another option for up and coming aviators to gain experience).
I wish I could say the future looks bright, but I'm not convinced it does. Like I said before, technology is advancing almost exponentially, I wouldn't be surprised to see the beginnings of pilot-less airliners before the end of my career (and I'm 45). On the other hand, if you have an interest in being a UAV operator, that appears to be a growth field.