EnviroTO
Senior Member
Well played. But how far do you take it? Would you board a plane with no pilots? Modern planes are capable of flying themselves including take off and landing.
Eventually I fully expect automated airplanes, probably with one pilot before there are zero. There used to be 3 on many aircraft but automation has reduced it to 2. A few more Germanwings and Malaysia Airlines type incidents and people will be clamouring for it. In many conditions a pilot is simply following lines set by computer, moving the aircraft into a box set by the computer relayed to the pilot by ATC and then programmed into the autopilot, or setting the position of the aircraft into a glidepath determined by the computer. Right now many airports and planes aren't designed for all the scenarios a pilot might see but if the technology continues to advance a pilot might end up having the Homer Simpson job of hitting the "Y" key on the computer.