There won't ever be single pilot airliners. It'll be 2 pilots or no pilots. A single pilot airliner would have to be designed in a manner where it could function safely should that pilot "fail"... and if it can do that, it doesn't need the pilot there in the first place.

You mean like how the 787 does it?

I'd bet $100 boeing engineers are designing the single-pilot systems right now. That doesn't mean the airplane has to be flown single-pilot, nor does it mean that it's 5 or even 10 years out, but they'd be stupid to not be investing and researching in this area, because that's naturally where it's going to go.

No, the change will be gradual from one pilot + a minimally rated pilot/FA, then one pilot, then one minimally rated pilot, then no pilots. Maybe 50 years or more before this happens, but it will happen. Besides, one pilot + computer is a level of redundancy and if needed the one person could "flip the switch" or call ground control to have them "take over" the aircraft depending on the situation.

Would a pilotless airliner have been able to land on The Hudson? I doubt the programming would have searched for, and found the only flat place to dead stick that jet.

BOOM. (Sound of mike hitting the floor as mike walks off the stage to a standing ovation).

The software made it back to LGA. Also, I doubt they would have made it to the river if it was IMC. That situation had a lot more luck than it did skill.

When the test subjects knew it was coming, they were able to make it back. They of course turned back right at bird impact. That was

When given the delay necessary for the engines to "digest" their victims, none of them made it back to LGA.

Real emergencies are asses and elbows, I don't think anyone would have made it back, except a computer.

The engines didn't die immediately. Even a computer wouldn't have made it back.

But would the computer even care if it made it back?