Originally Posted by
badflaps
I was reading a freight rail report. They are all twisted up about dropping the conductor. Just one guy running a 16,000 ft. train. Sounds lonely.
Rail companies have been trying to eliminate the conductor since at least the early 90s. Now we shouldn’t put our heads in the sand over the issue, but if it takes railways 30+ years (and counting) to go “single pilot” where they operate in really only one dimension, then I’m thinking my kids will be retired before it takes over aviation.
Also remember the first aircraft without an FE were certified in the 1960s and FE positions were still prevalent well into the 2000s.
I realize that it’s always a threat from the c-suite that loves to eliminate jobs, but realistically there are still a lot of obstacles to creating single pilot ops.