News flash...someone has already hacked the computer systems of a commercial airline in flight.

 

Ridiculous. Never will happen.

From a human factors stand point, you'll never get this to work.

From a cost stand point you'll never get this to work. Eliminating a $150 an hr position, you'd need to increase the CA pay, mx costs go up, other new positions would be created to monitor and maintain this technology, you'd have to factor the cost of lost revenue from passengers not flying.

Also, rest rules would have to change. Who is going to fly 8 hours block//14 hours duty all by their self, with literally no interaction from anyone? Forget reading the paper in cruise, you're the only thing separating an ATC mistake from a big fiery crash.

 

Most companies who have single pilot airplanes (planesense in the PC-12 for example) still require 2 pilots for insurance requirements. If and when this happens, it'll probably be a hurdle for insurance. On top of the hacking, sick pilot, or hijack issues.

 

My leg coupled to my side the next four days.

 

Oh I think it will happen. But not with TODAY's airplanes or TODAY's pilots, or in TODAY's regulatory or cultural environments.

Current airliners could be retrofitted for single-pilot ops but at great expense, most certainly prohibitive.

I saw some stats in an aviation week article...single-piloted citations crash at a rate 350% higher than crewed citations. It would take a LOT of VERY expensive technology to close that gap.

So until an actual western airline manufacturer (not DARPA or NASA) launches a formal project to build a single-pilot airliner you have nothing to worry about. BTW, they won't be committing those resources (tens of billions) until the regulatory environment allows them to sell the things in the US. The rest of the world market is too small if the US market is not an option. But the US market alone would probably not even be enough so most likely it would require European regs to accommodate as well.

Bottom line: Not in your working lifetime unless maybe you're in the sixth grade.

Underlying assumption: The Public, Congress, and Regulators will not give up safety margin so airlines can fire all their FO's.

 

Everything about modern Aircraft is about building redundancies in every system. I don't see airlines putting themselves at risk by cutting out a pilot who is one of the most safety-crucial redundancies at their disposal.

 

SkyNet is coming online...

 

It's going to happen. Just a matter of time before public perception changes. Driverless cars will change public perception. Plan for it.

 

I would think that the reliability of the navaids we use would also need to be improved. Some of these glide slopes out there are pretty wishy washy when flown by the autopilot. Just something else to think about....

 

It will happen. 50 years ago, we had 5 guys up front, then 4, then for the longest time, 3, and now 2.
It's natural progression. It will happen. But is not anywhere near. 50 years, maybe.