Posted on 06/08/2010 11:30:56 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Are airplane pilots destined for the same fate as flight navigators and engineers? Will they be replaced by lines of code, electrons and data-linked commands from faceless controllers beyond the horizon?
However unlikely that scenario, the trend is worth noting. As is being demonstrated daily in thousands of operations around the world, the black boxes on a growing number of aircraft are so "smart," they obviate the need to have a human operator on board to complete a given mission.
Pointing to the hundreds of automated takeoffs and landings performed by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) every day, David Vos, senior director, unmanned aerial systems at Rockwell Collins, declared, "It doesn't matter whether a pilot is on board. Think about that. What does it enable?"
What does it "enable" to have human ability, judgment and experience on board the aircraft anyway? In the age when experience — "best practices," if you will — can be distilled into software and sensor accuracy can exceed human situational awareness, what need, then, is there for the steady human hand at the helm? When the effect of the experienced hand can be duplicated and the database of experience constantly (and wirelessly) added to?
(Excerpt) Read more at aviationweek.com ...
Ping
Which is why presidents, prime ministers, and multi-national CEOs will be the very first to dump their human pilots.
Right?
Ping
BTTT
This is EXACTLY how Skynet started.
The best safety device on any aircraft is a well trained pilot.
Back when skyjacking became a big scare again (shortly following after the 9/11 skyjackings/bombings) there was talk about having the capability of seizing control of a jet liner on radio command from the ground in case of emergency. With better security provisions for the cockpit now the standard, this issue seems to have become moot. It would be nice, I suppose, for a craft to be able to complete its own flight if the pilot and copilot are both taken ill. (”Hello passengers, this is your new captain R2D2, I have just taken over command of this flight as your crew appears to be incapacitated. Don’t worry, we specially certified robots have never yet failed to land a craft safely.”)
So, who gets to write the code?
Microsoft?
Apple?
Google?
Lockheed-Martin.
You know, when you use industry specific jargon without defining it to your readers, you lose them at the gate.
What the hell is a “pax”?
Naw, it will be open source like Linux
Lets see a UAV on auto handle a bird strike and gently belly land in the Hudson river...
I firmly believe that we are quickly approaching the time where we look at manned military aircraft the way the Sopwith Camel was viewed during WWII.
I sort of already do.
Sorry passengers.
Well, they still have train crews, don't they? They're gonna have to go first, I would think.
Alrighty. Strange term, but I'll do my best to try and remember it.
ha ha ha
That is good Pax = passengers
I am sure it also = sorry passengers in some cases.
Maybe they can call the black box the “Sully?”
Yep. Software can only be as good as the coders and compilers are at understanding every environment the aircraft will ever be exposed to. Unfortunately, nature gets to play a hand too.
TC
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.