EagleRJ
they are already working on programs to allow planes to deal with the loss of control surfaces. They already have the capability to control aircraft with ground based, secure digital data link. They already have aircraft that can fly autonomously...cruise missiles can fly great distances, navigate, negotiate nap of the earth terrain, hit a target with great accuracy.
Bringing up the airliner that crashed on landing at SUX because of hydraulic failure is interesting, because they were never, ever able to replicate the actions of those great pilots in a sim. Everybody crashed when thrown into that same situation. So that landing that was made at SUX could possibly never be repeated again by humans. Intelligent Flight Control Systems would make such a flight scenario not only repeatable, but also more survivable. Think about it, the stealth fighter couldn't be flown manually either!!!
Here is a scroll and paste from a NASA website and the LINK to that website...(there is so much stuff on automated flight/fly by wire/Digital Flight Control Systems DFCS/Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS), that you could spend weeks looking through it) Anyone that thinks this stuff ISN'T going to affect commercial flying in the future...is thinking inside the pre 9/11 box. Bullet resistant cockpit doors, ARMED AIRLINE PILOTS, increased threat of terrorism and the fact that the World Trade Center Towers are missing from the New York skyline, are all pointing to the fact that airliners in the future are going to have to be flyable and landable...when the pilots are incapacitated. Anyone that argues that pilot incapacitation is not feasable or possible, would have to be arguing against reality...because recent news headlines bear out that that is a real fear in government's mind and the flying public's mind. Heck, they are arguing now, that ONE bullet resistant door protecting the flight deck...isn't enough!
Here is the link to the expanded version of the text I pasted below...it also has some nice photos...
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff2002/dryden.html
One of Dryden's earliest aeronautics success stories celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Most modern aircraft utilize a digital flight control system (DFCS). Dryden engineers pioneered this system in 1972, with the F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire aircraft research project. The DFCS concept incorporated an electronic flight-control system coupled with a digital computer to replace conventional flight controls. Dryden's work paved the way for the DFCS now used in the Space Shuttle and today's military and civilian aircraft, making them safer, more maneuverable, and more efficient.
Digital systems make aircraft more maneuverable because computers command more frequent adjustments than human pilots. Aircraft designers are no longer confined to designing features that make the aircraft more stable, thus harder to maneuver. For commercial airliners, computerized flight controls ensure a smoother ride than a human pilot alone could provide.
As always, Dryden's research produces cutting-edge technology in aviation. How about an airplane that can heal itself and land safely following a catastrophe? A special NASA airplane that can alter its own computerized flight software to meet in-flight emergencies is getting ready for research flights next year. Dryden will operate the highly modified NF-15B aircraft in a series of flights in the Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) research project. IFCS is designed to incorporate self-learning neural network concepts into flight control software to enable a pilot to maintain control and safely land an aircraft that has suffered a major systems failure or combat damage. Flight evaluation of first- and second-generation self-learning neural network control software is expected to occur in 2003. Preliminary flight tests of an IFCS neural network that was pre-trained to the NF-15B's aerodynamic database were flown in spring 1999.
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff2002/dryden.html
