Some airlines have spoken of plans for a future of flight with no pilots on board.
The development could become a reality due to a looming shortage of pilots and because of advances in automation.
The chances however are that this could cause some unease to airline passengers.
Airbus, the European aircraft maker are developing technology that eventually will remove human beings from the cabin. The company's chief technology officer, Paul Eremenko, said,
''Maybe we can reduce the crew needs for our future aircraft.''
He told Bloomberg Television,
''We are pursuing single-pilot operation as a potential option and a lot of the technologies needed to make that happen have also put us on the path towards unpiloted operation.''
Boeing are refusing to be left out in this venture. The airline has already announced plans for testing autonomous flight technology in small aircraft in 2018.
The company's vice-president of product development, Mike Sinnett, will ride in the experimental aircraft along with monitoring pilots. He rightly emphasised the need for caution over a cultural shift that faces resistance from both the public and aviators.
Nevertheless, Mr Sinnett told Aviation Week magazine,
''We're not going there yet. We're exploring.''
It must be pointed out that airliners are already highly automated, with crews usually handling the classic controls only on take-off and the last few hundred feet of landing. Fully automatic landing is used on some aircraft.
No comments:
Post a Comment