b2pilot186

There is really only one "what if" scenario...and that is "What happens when the human is removed from the equation due to death or incapicatation?"

The answer is DISASTER. Just keep the assembly lines running champ...we'll pilot the aircraft.

767pilot

UPS 6 and UPS in Birmingham

BlazingSaddles

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/09/boeing-raises-prospect-of-only-one-pilot-in-the-cockpit-of-planes

crazycoconut

in case you have not noticed, SpaceX is already sending "drone" rockets to orbit and then landing them back at the launch site.
Ya, they have had some failures all new technology does.
But if you think drone airplanes are no coming soon, you have not been paying attention to what is going on.

The people behind the drone airplane ideas say it will start with cargo. Mainly because it will take awhile to convince the public to get on an airplane with no pilots.

There are several companies already testing small package delivery with drones. Once that is established, the next step will be to upsize. i would not be surprised to see in a few years General Atomics start selling a commercial version of their drones to UPS and FEDEX to start a point to point delivery service. It will start in remote places like Alaska.

it will be here sooner than you think

dustrpilot

http://www.abilene-rc.com/news/off-i...60b4f8651.html

Any ideas how long this might take to get certified?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No Land 3

I believe I will have a good career, my son however will be affected by it. Cargo will become unmanned in our life time. If in 50 years we went from the Wright flyer to the SR71... Computing power has no less of an amazing rate of increase. The limiting factor that keeps us from doing it now is all the manned airplanes sharing the same airspace.

Adlerdriver

Yah think?

This will never happen in the lifetime of anyone alive today.

Cargo? meh... maybe once FedEx gets their investment back on the 150+ brand new 2-pilot 777s and 767s they're buying right now. Oh... and the FAA figures out how to segregate any unmanned cargo flights from the ones with people inside and still get cargo to where people live and use it. All without the occasional drone freighter planting itself in downtown Chicago or Atlanta.

C130driver

I don’t think he’s an actual pilot, and if he is..well god help AA.

121again

I'm so tired of these threads. It's hard enough just to get them to upgrade their tired CRT displays to LCD screens.

Can we move this to the "Engineers and Technicians" sub forum and let them argue about it?

SaltyDog

Opinions from the "people behind the drone airplane" that we will start with cargo may be true, however, far larger universe of reality. These "people" are but one element of a far larger equation that must be solved.

Unbiased discussion. How soon do you think? I think several generations of humans away from a truly reliable UAS future world with airliners flying remotely. Even then, humans will be on board many aircraft systems in some manner of operation. Certainly we will see a mix of manned and unmanned. That reality is already present in 2018.

Stated in an earlier post, not really just a technology issue. They can already fly any size aircraft remotely. It is the rest of the story that is the timeline driver. Read up on NEXGEN for only one glimpse of the challenges faced in an airspace system upgrade.
Economics ( infrastructure cost share on equipment and ground handling facilities plus Legal exposure and insurance requirements), Safety, physical security & cyber security, Add worldwide coordination, government(s) bureaucracy and politics.

If NEXGEN is but one guide, this is a sloooow multi generational process.