Pilotless Airliner - They're looking at it again!

[FNG_that's me]

It seems to me that as soon as a company announced plans to procure pilotless aircraft, the pilots at that company would just stop showing up to work...thus putting the company out of business before the new aircraft even showed up. Hey, if they're going to put you out of a job, you might as well put them out of a company at the same time.

 

[30West]

The real question is how do we replace the CEO's with robots.

Couldn't have said it better.

Saves money AND jobs!

 

[wings421]

In a pilotless aircraft, who's going to sleep with the flight attendants? :laugh:

 

[Huggyu2]

I thought the cockpit of the future was going to have a dog and a pilot for crew.

Bingo! We have a winner!!

 

[RefugePilot]

Bingo! We have a winner!!

I assumed everyone has heard this one:


The cockpit of the future will have a pilot and a dog. The pilot is there to watch the airplane and the dog is there to watch the pilot, and bite him if he tries to touch anything.

 

[Oh-ryan]

This is the best unmanned plane I've seen yet. I am not sure why the rest of you guys aren't on board with the Unmanned Aerial Vechicle concept yet. Losers!

http://www.pbase.com/michaelchow810_4/image/27954805

 

[luckytohaveajob]

I am on board with the Hooter unmanned cockpit as well as the robot freighter.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

Boeing Project

If Boeing is doing this project, it will soon be on a Boeing freighter.



G550 Spy Plane Can Be Pilotless
Boeing has revealed a surprise entry for the U.S. Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) competition. While two rival bids use High-Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Boeing is adapting the Gulfstream G550 to fly the mission manned or unmanned. Also, Raytheon has joined Boeing’s bid to offer an active-array maritime surveillance radar that will use software modes from the proven APS-137 and its derivative, due to fly on the Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. The U.S. Navy conceived the BAMS program as a supplement to the P-8, using the HALE UAVs to provide 24/7 coverage of broad ocean areas. Northrop Grumman proposes a system that uses the Global Hawk UAV as the platform. Lockheed Martin has teamed with General Atomics to offer the latter’s Predator B as an alternative, lower-cost HALE UAV platform. But Boeing believes that, with regulatory acceptance of UAVs flying in controlled airspace lagging, it is prudent to o! ffer the option of what some call an optionally piloted vehicle.

 

[huronip]

Shouldn't they fix the problems with the A380 before they start something else?

 

[30West]

July10, 2017. First pilotless airliner pressed into service for the sake of profit and shareholder dividend long before the technology is fully developed.

1600z: The first pilotless airliner taxis out from JFK with 210 pax for it's inagural flight to LAX.

1635z: First pilotless airliner lifts off and heads west.

1755z: First pilotless airliner falls out of the bottom of an embedded level 5 thunderstorm in a thousand pieces somewhere over Indiana.........

 

[luckytohaveajob]

Shouldn't they fix the problems with the A380 before they start something else?

A380=EADs

G550 working with Boeing has nothing to do with EADs or the A380.

 

[rickair7777]

They said the same thing about trains, but I don't see anyone not getting on the ones without engineers.

Trains are the reason I'm not too worried about being automated out of a job...there are no automated large passenger (or freight) trains!

The only place you finf automated trains are on some of those short little runs between airport terminals (where there's no ground vehicle traffic involved). Even some of those actually still have drivers.

If they can't do it with trains, they probably can't do it with airliners.

 

[CheyDogFlies]

They said the same thing about trains, but I don't see anyone not getting on the ones without engineers.

Are there unmanned pax trains nowadays? Where are they (not counting the underground aiport terminal shuttle)?--My train GK is weak, much like my aircraft GK.

 

[McNugget]

I think the real issues here are: Will the robots be on the master scab list for stealing jobs? Will VALPA (virtual ALPA) represent the robot group? Will the robots be allowed to fly past age 65?

 

[NEDude]

Are there unmanned pax trains nowadays? Where are they (not counting the underground aiport terminal shuttle)?--My train GK is weak, much like my aircraft GK.

You know what is really sad? Those subway operators make more than many airline pilots.

 

[Cheeta]

This is to move passenger aircraft to single pilot operations by 2017....fact!

 

[Mr Hat]

This month's ATW mag had another article relating to this. Said perhaps as soon as 5-6 years (too "optimisitc" IMO) - another 30-40 years is more "realisitic" perhaps.

30-40 years to design the plane properly...then 20 years for the FAA to approve it. The FAA is still thinking about the benefits of NDB's. They got a ways to go before they get to pilotless airliners.

 

[Crossky]

The bottom line

In a word, money. Airlines' single largest cost is staff wages, which consume half of a typical airline's annual revenue—far more than fuel, aircraft leasing or servicing costs. Pilots are the most costly airline workers to employ. At a typical airline, industry insiders say, 97 of the 100 most highly paid employees will be pilots. #'s 98, 99, and 100 however make more than all the pilots combined.
(the Economist)

The Economist HAS to be WRONG.

Labor cost is always behind that of the airplane and fuel, that's common knowledge in this industry and has been forever.

 

[Flyby1206]

This is to move passenger aircraft to single pilot operations by 2017....fact!

Bingo! They will take us down 1 at a time. They already eliminated the Nav officers, and FEs. FOs will be next!

 

[luckytohaveajob]

Bingo! They will take us down 1 at a time. They already eliminated the Nav officers, and FEs. FOs will be next!

Freight doesn't care how many pilots are on board.