Single pilot airline flights

[Velocity173]

As a child in the 1980s, a lot of aviation literature said that the next generation of aircraft would be pilot-less, and my childhood dreams of being a pilot were crushed. 40 years later, I still see the same headlines.

Yep, I remember all the 1980s DARPA adverts about a pilotless future. Hasn’t happened yet.

Speaking of 80s, @nauga with the Escape From New York profile. Classic.

 

[Zeldman]

As a child in the 1980s,

Somewhere packed and stored away I have a book about the future of aviation. It talks about how folks will be in flying cars by the 80s and pilotless airplanes by 2000. And space travel will be common in the early 2020s. (traveling where, it did not say) It was written in 1947.

 

[nauga]

If you base your idea of the future of aviation on popsci you're going to be disappointed. Or happy, if you're opposed to something they're touting.

Nauga,
and (piloted) pie on the sky

 

[nauga]

Yep, I remember all the 1980s DARPA adverts about a pilotless future. Hasn’t happened yet

Name an airplane or control law set DARPA has fielded. Contracted R&D doesn't count. Again, consider the source.

...the Escape From New York profile. Classic.

I wanted Hoss Delgado.

Nauga
and his Grim Adventures

 

[Bell206]

While I think it will eventually come to single pilot/pilotless aircraft, it won't happen in my lifetime. Two major roadblocks still remain and neither are certification or technology orientated. With the projection of the need for 500k+ more skilled pilots in the next 20 years at the airline level globally, I seriously doubt the top global pilot unions will sit idle and let "technology" cut those dues paying numbers by half or to zero. Their combined clout politically and economically will make single-pilot 121 pax ops very difficult. Cargo perhaps in a shorter time period but not pax ops. But the biggest hurdle is the insurance side of things. With dozens of pilot incapacitations every year for various reasons recorded worldwide, I also doubt there are no insurance companies willing to take that risk on a single pilot cockpit. And neither would I given the first hand experiences I've had on the maintenance side of chasing phantom system tech faults that only need the battery discounted for 5 mins to fix. So until the tech side can develop a 100% defect free system I doubt any insurance underwriter will write a policy on a pax carrying A350 with a single pilot. As to the certification side, I think it is moot as economics will drive that change just as it has with drones, LSA, regulatory rewrites, etc. and as historical record has shown us.

 

[Velocity173]

Name an airplane or control law set DARPA has fielded. Contracted R&D doesn't count. Again, consider the source.

I wanted Hoss Delgado.

Nauga
and his Grim Adventures

The Rockwell / DARPA FSW flew in the great Russian American war of 1980 something.

 

[nauga]

The Rockwell / DARPA FSW flew in the great Russian American war of 1980 something.

Someone will take this bait, I'm certain.

Nauga,
future tense

 

[IK04]

Hand-me-down XF-29.