Originally Posted by bedrock

The long term goal is to make airplanes smarter, so pilots can be dumber and have less skill. Airbus started this track earlier, seeing the rising demand in Asia. They are designing airplanes for a guy who previously drove a tractor. We've seen how this line of thinking ends up. You can't trust automation to fly an airplane yet, but they are trying hard to produce this. When this happens OR they convince people it has happened, everyone will be able to get a certificate. ALPA should be pointing out what happened with the "operators" on Air France 447 who were not properly trained--the plane killed them and all aboard. This is why I view ALPA as a failure; they have plenty of opportunity to air the dirty laundry to the public and they don't.