Flydaplane

Pretty cool stuff coming...
Future of Travel - CNN.com

The Juice

Ahh, technology that will one day make pilots obsolete.

gloopy

The yoke was so LOL though.

And voice control? That's the dumbest flight deck "innovation" I've ever seen. Yeah that really saves time/effort/workload lol

disco inferno

disregard......

Barley

Yeah! Rabble rabble rabble rabble! They'll never get rid of the third crew member! Pay will only go up! Rabble rabble rabble rabble! Computers are stupid! Pilot shortage! Brotherhood! Let's all march in a line holding signs to show our dissatisfaction with an obsolete job that doesn't pay $300,000/year for no reason! Lorenzo! Where can I get a clip-on tie to match my cowboy boots! I need more stickers on my flight bag to show that I've sat in different airplanes! Professionals always put stickers on their brief cases! Etc...

Yeah.. this job is screwed.

JoeyMeatballs

The only reason we are safe for now is because it simply is cheaper to have us up front than buy te equipment to install in all airliners. Also, the airliners coming off the production line are good for another 25-30 years.

Or am I just kidding myself?

rickair7777

No, you're right. Pilots are still a lot cheaper than designing and buying the systems needed to replace us. The technology exists, absolutely (except for AI to deal with really unusual situations), but we also have the technology to colonize Mars if we really wanted to.

And then if you want actual dispatch reliability, triple the cost...one unit to be MELed, one to do the job, and one as a backup.


Also...artificial intelligence is not capable of dealing with many unanticipated (by the engineers) situations, and is not very good at dealing with complex issues such as navigating a storm front. The pilot will consider radar returns, ATC reports, PIREPs, what he hears other pilots doing on freq, what he sees out the window. It's real hard to write a program to process all that stuff holistically.

Automation would, IMO, reduce some pilot-error accidents such as descent below MDA/CFIT, runway overuns/excursions, etc. But you'd have increases in new types of accidents...such as structural failure hull-loss due to flight into CB by confused AP, airplane falling out of sky due to systems failures such AF447 (the pilots at least had a chance to save that one, automation was obviously hosed). So you'd have to figure out would automation prevent more accidents than it causes, and would the public accept that trade off? Automation failures are likely to be smoking-hole accidents while pilots can sometimes pull off a crash landing and save some lives.

encore

From a liability aspect, you'd think airlines, airplane makers, and the government would want pilots to be there.

That way, when a plane crashes, you have someone to blame. Get rid of the pilots and they can't keep labeling every crash as "pilot error" and wipe their hands clean of it.

gloopy

Yeah! Rabble rabble rabble! We're all out of a job anyday! All our job are belong to computer! Rabble rabble rabble! Planes without FE = no pilots right around the corner for great success! Rabble rabble rabble! Teleporters and time travel! Rabble rabble rabble! Let's all stand in line at the Apple store for remote control wide bodies! Autoland at every airport under every circumstance with full redundancy? There's an app for that! Pocket protectors are the new epaulets! Rabble rabble rabble!

Wow that was fun, srsly.

sulkair

You're forgetting one thing Rickair... You don't need AI when you can pay one human 50k a year to monitor 8 flights remotely with the ability to take over in a virtual cockpit. " flight 610 has lost hydraulic pressure in system 1 - emergency - assume control and work the problem in VC (virtual cockpit) #3" ... Just as drone operators handle issues remotely with real human intelligence.

Or in your flight into CB scenerio... " 610 is painting magenta in that line ahead, get Joe over there to give some guidance to Hal 3000 in VC #4."