Recently Boeing test flew an F16 fitted out as a remotely controlled drone. It appears that all went well- including a landing described by one observer as the best F16 landing he had ever seen.

One has to wonder if the old gag about automated & pilotless airliners, may yet come about!

Given the acoounts of crew sleep deprivation and general flight deck procedural errors, perhaps that day may not be as far away as we have imagined.

 

In a related story, the USAF Academy reports cadets filling only about one third of the slots needed for drone pilot training. You don't suppose that is one objective for Lockheed/Martin & P3D ?

It's a fast changing world out there.

january

Recently Boeing test flew an F16 fitted out as a remotely controlled drone. It appears that all went well- including a landing described by one observer as the best F16 landing he had ever seen.

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In a related story, the USAF Academy reports cadets filling only about one third of the slots needed for drone pilot training. You don't suppose that is one objective for Lockheed/Martin & P3D ?

It's a fast changing world out there.

january

One has to think that LM IS closely following trends in military spending - and that simmers like us will benefit.

After all, we do this for "educational and learning" purposes - don't we?

At last, perhaps, some well paying jobs emerging for simmers!

january

One has to wonder if the old gag about automated & pilotless airliners, may yet come about!

 

This has come up before. My question is, how comfortable would you be boarding an aircraft that is being piloted remotely? If something was to happen and the pilot was on-board, his survival instincts will kick in to save his life, and yours.

 

If the person responsible for that aircraft you are a passenger in is on the ground and something was to go wrong, would he react in the same way? or 'Que Sera Sera'. Truth is the person responsible for that aircraft you are in will survive regardless of the outcome, so I don't think they would have the same survival instincts they would if they were on-board with you.

 

If I go on a plane, boat or whatever I want the captain on board with me. Because if we go down, we go down together.

I think I would prefer to be aboard for a true Cat3b landing - than with a pilot who decided to go to an alternate - despite marginally insufficient fuel!

january

Pilots' "survival instincts" aren't something you can count on, especially in a wolrd in which they do little flying. The Colgan and Air France pilots' instincts seemed to have been to pull back on the stick.

 

I am old enough to remember when some people didn't want to ride on self-service elevators. In the end, machines are more accurate and more reliable than humans, and the world will be safer when they fly our planes and drive our cars.

I also agree that too much automation has been bad for aviation. I believe their has been studies recently to try and make the systems more engaging for the pilots but I can't remember where I read that. 

 

That is something I support as the pilots do need to be engaged more with these systems somehow.

I was actually thinking about this in the last few days from another perspective.........

 

An awful lot of people here are tube-liner fans and are crazy about them, to the point of even buying real life front ends to make the ultimate home cockpit.

 

But already some have pointed out that automation makes even simulated pilots more like programers in some ways, and I notice even now a lot of people kind of program their planes for long overnight flights and get up the next day to land.......

 

What happens to simming when all there is to simulate is the pilot dropping in a programmed usb stick and keeping one bored eye open (maybe) while the plane does everything else?

 

Will simmers stop buying new planes and wax nostalgic about the long gone golden days of flight?

The evidence suggests that automation increases safety by eliminating human error. The pilot's role is increasingly as a back-up to automation.

 

There is question has to how pilots should be trained to fulfil this role.

 

 

One has to wonder if the old gag about automated & pilotless airliners, may yet come about!

 

For commercial and military aircraft - it's inevitable.  Today's current problem is partial automation (many examples of that including recent Asiana crash at KSFO).  But, as demonstrated with the F16, there is more than enough computation power to fully automate an aircraft and deal with emergency situations (probably faster and better than a human could -- again numerous examples of crews making major errors because of not understanding all the parameters of their aircraft data being shown them and get fixated on single data point).  There are enough examples of a perfectly functioning aircraft that crashed because of human error, not the automated systems fault ... the human made a mistake in setting/operating (or in some cases turning off) the automated system.

 

As technologies improve, there will also be little or no need for "remote" control or monitoring as the system will be fully self contained (with backups) on the aircraft.  We're already see systems like this in automobiles ... it's just a matter of time and human acceptance.

 

The biggest hurdle to fully automated commercial aircraft will be removing fear from our human conditioning ... no trivial task.

 

But that doesn't mean the end ... plenty of GA flying to be done.

There is question has to how pilots should be trained to fulfil this role.

Perhaps pilots might learn to fly P3D !

One wonders if the role of "Flight Engineer" might be reincarnated- the onboard human who watches to ensure the "automation" is working correctly- and who also wishes the passengers "a pleasant flight"!

Just think of the extra "Ultra First Class" seats ( and revenue therefrom) that could be fitted into the present flight deck space!

 

If you can eliminate terrorists at their homes while sitting at a console halfway around the world, one would suspect that the airplane builders and airlines are looking at the same technology!

Ford offers an automation option to neatly park your car in a tight space - why not a similar option for airliners?

january