Pilotless aircraft. Look out Fed Ex wannabees.

[slackass]

I've been seeing more and more stories like this. I've also read that we may very well be seeing the last of fighter pilot classes for the military. I think that most of us in the industry are safe right now but this may very well be realistic within one lifetime. Ask some of the grey beards now and ask them what it was like when they started flying. I chuckled the other day in the jumpseat of an Airbus when the seasoned captain turned to the F.O. and after running the "before start checklist" said, "count three blades and start two".
[FONT=arial,helvetica,geneva]Cargo Drone In The Works[/FONT]

Israeli Aerospace Industries is working on an airliner-sized unmanned aerial vehicle capable of carrying 60,000 pounds of freight. And the only reason it’s focusing on a cargo plane is that the flying public won’t accept a pilotless passenger plane. Shlomo Tsach, IAI’s director of flight sciences, told the Jerusalem Post the technology already exists to fly passengers without pilots but "the world is not yet ready to be flown without a pilot at the stick.” However, he said, a study by Boeing suggests there’s no such resistance to sending packages without direct human intervention, so the idea of a pilotless cargo plane is gaining some traction.

 

[YourPilotFriend]

Well if it runs on windows vista, better buy the insurance next time.

 

[Huck]

Let's see, 100 million airplane, who knows how many millions in cargo in the back, operating round the world in class II airspace to third world airports with sketchy weather data and ATC control... something tells me Fred Smith "may not be ready" to toss the keys to a hacker in a cubicle somewhere either.....

 

[Fedora]

Aviation Week & Space Technology03/05/2007, page 19


The Israel Air Force plans to unveil its big, new long-range unmanned aircraft within the next few weeks. The Eitan, also known as the Heron II, has the wingspan of a Boeing 737.
The aircraft has flown clandestinely several times. IAF will announce its introduction to military service. It also may be displayed at the Paris air show in June.
Eitan is being considered for use for intelligence-gathering and surveillance, and as a strike platform for ballistic missile intercept in boost phase and ground attack of missile launchers. The design also is being considered, along with the Eagle I, as an aerial refueler. Technion, Israel's premier technological institute, is developing a prototype refueling system.

Credit: Northrop Grumman ConsceptThat means Israel joins Northrop Grumman and European guided weapons manufacturer MBDA in undertaking preliminary study work on UAV air-to-air refueling.
Northrop Grumman is eyeing development of the high-flying Global Hawk UAV as an aerial refueler; company officials posted this first image in a private corner of a booth at the annual Air Force Assn. show in Orlando, Fla., late last month. Air Force leaders have requested preliminary work on the refueler, although the mission requirement is still vague.
A company official says the tanker would carry fuel to other Global Hawks conducting intelligence-collection missions, to extend their endurance. However, some experts speculate the refueler may be used for other high-flying aircraft that haven't yet been developed or made their debut in the unclassified world. The design also is being examined for use as a tanker for stealthy, unmanned combat aircraft with shorter ranges.
IAF officials also are looking at a UAV tanker to fuel manned aircraft in enemy airspace where manned tankers would be too vulnerable.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force plans to demonstrate the Global Hawk in the Asia-Pacific area. The project will involve the deployment of a Global Hawk to Guam and overflights from there. Ten nations have signed up to participate and have specified regions they would like observed. Another possible use of Global Hawk in the region is to provide security surveillance in the Straits of Malacca, where pirates have been known to board oil tankers sailing from the Persian Gulf to the Far East.

 

[MALSR]

would you rather have a computer or a 300 hr regional pilot fly you around?

 

[PurpleInMEM]

I'm looking through my April bidpack for these telecommuter lines and I don't see any. When will they be published? Will I get per diem to sit in my boxers, eat cheetos and 'fly' the pilotless drone?

I figure I've really only got a 50/50 shot at getting to retirement age anyway at FedEx. Something like this is bound to come along eventually and end the gravy train.

Save your money gents.

 

[siucavflight]

would you rather have a computer or a 300 hr regional pilot fly you around?

I hear this a lot, any idea how many accidents in the airline world have happened at the hands of a 300 hour pilot?

 

[Soverytired]

Pilotless cargo and passenger ops will happen in our lifetimes.

And they will very likely be safer. "Pilot error" causes a huge amount of accidents. Sad but true.

Been saying it for years, and no one wants to believe it.

 

[Walter Sobchak]

Ummmm. How's a pilotless aircraft going to handle taxiing at ORD? Anyone?

 

[imacdog]

Pilotless cargo and passenger ops will happen in our lifetimes.

And they will very likely be safer. "Pilot error" causes a huge amount of accidents. Sad but true.

Been saying it for years, and no one wants to believe it.

Yes and there is always going to be a human error factor in a pilotless airplane as well. Whether they are holding a yoke or typing on a keypad, humans will continue to make mistakes that put airplanes into the ground.

 

[J32driver]

Nothing will ever move again. How many times have you taken an airplane with a minor or intermittent glitch that by the book might have grounded it at an outstation?

How many times have you visually dodged the anvil not painting on the radar?

How many times have you intervened because the autoflight/fms/autothrust wasn't doing its job?

How slow will the airspace system get when you can't give a robot a visual approach to speed things along?

There isn't a commercial airline pilot worth his sack that would ever argue for this. Go ask a predator pilot how many they lose in theater because of communication loss!

 

[STREAKS]

Stand by for the "Jewish Airplane Programmers Association" thread!

 

[acaTerry]

Pilotless cargo and passenger ops will happen in our lifetimes.

And they will very likely be safer. "Pilot error" causes a huge amount of accidents. Sad but true.

Been saying it for years, and no one wants to believe it.

Design it....at least 5 years (the miliary doesn't count: I'm talkin' passenger planes here).
Test it....at least 3 years
Prove it....at least 5 years
Submit it...at least 1 year
FAA test it...at least 3 years
Red tape it...at least 2 years
Sell it...at least 3 years
Implement it...at least 2 years
Get the public to trust it...who knows

No, not in our lifetimes. Also, consider that ATC radar can not do the job on WX avoidance. So it flies into a big storm, injures pax, no one in the cockpit to negotiate a deviation, or even ask for other altitudes for everyday turbulence. Pax get injured, lawsuits....I just don't see it any time soon.

 

[MDAutry]

Depends On How Long You Believe People Will Live After 2025....

 

[d.fitz]

I am pretty sure the Fedex contract already addresses and prohibits pilot-less aircraft being flown by Fedex... The technology is already there, and they are planning ahead...

 

[WSurf]

I agree, not in our lifetime! Technology is there, however its along way from happening!

I could see going to a 1 crew cockpit with the system as a back up before it would go totally pilotless.

 

[Huck]

Whether they are holding a yoke or typing on a keypad, humans will continue to make mistakes that put airplanes into the ground.
__

I like the analogy of the ham and eggs breakfast: the chicken is involved, but the pig is commited....

Pilots make safety decisions based on their desire to see their kids again at the end of a trip. A drone operator on the ground just don't feel that in his gut.

Now, you could have some kind of gun pointed at him, and if the plane crashes he gets it in the head.....

 

[WSurf]

Plus I think it is hard to take the pilot away when it comes to certain wx situations. Gusty Landings, pickin your way thru weather.....

But who knows? Look how far we have come since the Wright Brothers flight. No telling where will be in another 80 years.

 

[YourPilotFriend]

If someone ever leaked the source code of the software that ran these unmanned things, every unmanned airplane on the planet would need to be replaced. So that means ever airplane would need a different set of millions of lines of code. It's one thing to control them from the ground or run experiments, it's another to put them into actual experience.

 

[HA25]

would you rather have a computer or a 300 hr regional pilot fly you around?

Exactly...