[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Ping

[Talisker]

"It doesn't matter whether a pilot is on board. Think about that. What does it enable?"

Which is why presidents, prime ministers, and multi-national CEOs will be the very first to dump their human pilots.

Right?

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Ping

[lowflyn]

My dad has always said that eventually there will be a dog and a man in the cockpit. The man to feed the dog and make the pax happy, and the dog to keep the man away from the controls.
Aircraft can and have and will continue to fly themselves but as an A&P I see way to many software transients that we have to chase down to ever want to trust a commercial pax carrying aircraft to computers.
The human brain is still the best processor out there.

[Anvilhead]

This is EXACTLY how Skynet started.

[Blueflag]

So, who gets to write the code?

Microsoft?

Apple?

Google?

Lockheed-Martin.

[RobRoy]

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.

[dr_lew]

Are airplane pilots destined for the same fate as flight navigators and engineers?

Well, they still have train crews, don't they? They're gonna have to go first, I would think.

[ken5050]

Maybe they can call the black box the “Sully?”

[leakinInTheBlueSea]

man this is so far off for commercial aviation... if the technology is so easy, why haven’t the box haulers emptied the flight deck? no passengers to worry about a the lack of a human presence... in an unable to reach airfield scenario, just ditch in an unpopulated area (loss of property only), and it would save them one of their largest expenses (flight crew labor & benefits). The stories that I’ve heard regarding what has gone wrong with global hawk and predator are enough to convince me this is not in my lifetime. technology moves at a rapid pace, but the FAA moves at a snails pace and this is far from a trivial transition... so complex on so many levels.

[Erik Latranyi]

Rountrip ticket from NY to LA with Pilot = $400

Rountrip ticket from NY to LA with UAV = $200

Let the public decide