Originally Posted by
encore
There will never be single pilot airliners. The pilot is either a critical system or he/she is not. If they are, they will have a redundancy onboard, just like every other critical system. If they are not, there is no need for them at all. If the airplane can be designed to safely function with a failure of the pilot (which will happen), then it doesn't need the pilot there in the first place.
There will be either 2 pilot airliners or pilotless airliners, but not single pilot.
This makes a lot of sense. However, what may eventually happen may not follow a logical path. There are single pilot private jets. The FAA has allowed this and become at least somewhat comfortable with it. If Airbus and Boeing build a plane in 30 years that's meant for a single pilot, and can be controlled remotely by a ground operator, I could see the FAA agreeing to it. I'm not sure that's the most likely course of progress, because what the heck is the benefit? The payoff for the airlines isn't there. Fully autonomous airplanes would save way more money, but would be much harder to do and much further down the road.