Originally Posted by
madmax757
And you even just said it yourself in your reply. It pushed buttons and got the machine on the ground.
Also I said CO PILOTS in 5-10 years. Not the AC commander or Captain. I fly an A320 and I recall a recent flight. AP1 on at 100 feet, pushed some buttons , talked on radio, visibility below Cat 1 mins so did an autoland. Taxi to gate. Its just too easy.
Didn't mean to dis anything about the C17 mission. I do realize you fly into hostile areas and do tactical approaches where you get shot at and refuel inflight. But don't you also drone from point A to B quite often also? Couldn't you do most missions with one human pilot and have a robot copilot in 5-10 years?
If you re read the article, it stated the Robot could manipulate the auto flight system and get the airplane on the ground if the Captain becomes incapacitated. That's what they are demonstrating.
Don't you as an A320 pilot ever find yourself intervening during managed modes, heading select mode around weather, etc? We have two pilots for 2 reasons: contingency and CRM. A computer is no where near the point to be able to back up one pilot programming the "box." What happens when the pilot is incapacitated? The computer just knows to do what it is programmed.
Now you could argue that the second pilot would be in the ground station, but then how much are we really saving cost wise; considering the investment into the automation and still having to pay that guys' salary. Not much, not to mention the insurance costs and non monetary costs/risks. A cargo plane crashing isn't really cheap. The only true savings would be a pilot less cockpit but like I said that is generations away. AI would have to be developed to a point where it can actually make human like decisions
I don't fly C-17s, just an example, but the C-130J has a similar cockpit. Even on a routine mission there is no way one pilot could take it from start to finish.