9 seats one pilot

[BuckMurdock1]

I love how our society is in such a damn hurry to automate the worker out of a job. What happens to an economy when one day you don't have a need for 10s of thousands of workers ('co-pilots') whose core competency is flying airplanes? Apply that example to other industries too.

 

[CX880]

Lots of crazies on this thread. You won't see a single pilot airliner within the next 100 years. I think even the millennium falcon had a copilot.

 

[BoilerUP]

As somebody that flies a Part 23 single pilot jet...I seriously doubt I will see Part 25 jets flown by a single pilot, especially 121, in my lifetime.

Think about it - folks that are hitting 65 were told as kids that we'd all have flying cars by now...

 

[SpauldingSmails]

Ahhh...you forgot about the pilot shortage. )

Seriously though, that will likely force the issue upon the airlines and government. The technology already exists to make this happen right now. Current aircraft can be retrofitted. It won't require refleeting.

There are many who once said that it wasn't safe to have 2 pilot crews flying in airline operations. Look at the world now.

Airliners were tooling around with a crew of two, even before the phase in and out of FEs. (DC-3s, etc...)

I'm not saying that it would be impossible to make acceptably safe, I'm doubting the economic advantage. Which aircraft were refitted with additional electronics simply to phase out FEs? I think the MD-10 is the only example I can pull off the top of my head. It was probably more economical to cover FE payroll until such time that those aircraft required replacement.

As for refitting existing aircraft for an "E-FO" or otherwise - I don't see that happening very quickly, especially from a regulatory approval standpoint.

Flying RNP approaches? Enjoying your EFB? Many are, but many also still are not - myself included.

FAA NextGen implementation with ADS-B is supposed to be completed by 2020, we're already about 4 years behind schedule.

B787 deliveries are years behind schedule and yet burst into flames and their engines choke on ice crystals.

Advances move glacially in the airline world - specifically the regulatory side.

I don't think we're going to see a retrofit kit for a 737 to be flown single pilot in the next ten years - let alone approved for FAR121 operations.

 

[nerdpilot]

It will take one Third world (talent short)(economically exploding) freight operator to operate a Bus or maybe a Boeing, single pilot without incident,(6 months) before the rest of the world will be screaming at law makers to approve it in their country.

 

[BoilerUP]

And one incapacitated pilot event and/or smoking hole for the media and lawmakers to be screaming about how stupid an idea it was.

You'd be effectively dropping to a single point of failure in an aircraft that was certified with redundancy in mind.

You'll see Part 91 single pilot G650ERs flying 7500nm looooong before the first passenger air carrier would try SP (or even one pilot/RPA backup) ops.

 

[nerdpilot]

That is a point of view but a situation that rarely happens. These aircraft will only be monitored by a single pilot and flown from thousands of miles away remotely with little to no actual input from a trained professional liability.

 

[n757st]

single pilot... no. Multi crew license, (IE essentially single pilot ops)... this decade.

 

[Hugh Johnson]

AE used to have a PBI - MIA leg in the SAAB. People climbing on board looking for first class was priceless.

 

[Kaman]

They have had 9-seat 135 commuter operations for years. The FAA doesn't really care about overall safety, or single level of safety for that matter. It is all about cost vs. benefit, operational risk vs. promoting air commerce. These 135 sked operations are going to be increasing ten-fold over the next couple of years, PC-12s, Cessna 208s, 402s, etc...