[Mr Rogers]

We'd have unmanned busses and trains first.

Excellent point. The military is pushing for unmanned aircraft as hard as possible, but it isn't as easy as the armchair engineers seem to think.

[CottonBall]

The military is pushing for unmanned aircraft as hard as possible, but it isn't as easy as the armchair engineers seem to think.

Seems to be it would be incredibly complex to design for every situation - dropping or sending weapons, changing waypoints based on fuel expenditure/changing tactical situation, interference with other aircraft, interference with various land objects, and takeoffs and landings aren't always simple either. Running a train on a rail is simple in comparison, yet there's not that many of those automated in this country yet. If we had the capability, I would think we would slowly integrate it before throwing out the pilot completely. Perhaps let the robotics handle takeoffs and landings first, and then add in other features as they develop. But have the pilot there to overrule it in case of an error - of which there will be many during development!