To: Bobby777
Considering that any plane designed to carry people would not really benefit much in terms of weight from having a computer pilot it instead of a human, I think human pilots will be around for a while. Add to that the comfort factor that people have when they fly commercially and know a skilled human being is piloting their craft, and it is clear we will have human pilots for a long time to come (more and more of the traffic will be automated, but humans will stick around).
57 posted on
11/23/2003 7:27:54 PM PST by
xm177e2
(Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
To: xm177e2
I think some have stated that it's perhaps necessary to have 15G capability to outturn some missiles (decoys / jamming nothwithstanding) ... I don't know the warhead size of today's missiles (have to look it up) but the SA-2 / 5 carried about 400lbs of explosive (? - can't remember) ... with big / high=yield warheads, it may not matter anyway ...
obviously it's a lot less heartbreaking to lose a machine over a mna in a plane ... but battle situations being so fluid I don't think humans can't be near the battle (which you seem to say) ...
and no, I wouldn't get on a comeercial jet totally flown by computer ... (I mean the whole flight) ... I have been on the L-1011 like many planes, capable of taking off and landing by itself ...
now 50 years in the future, it is definitely going to be quite a different world ... technology-wise ... or it could be, all things being equal ...
61 posted on
11/23/2003 7:36:36 PM PST by
Bobby777
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson