Are pilotless planes the future for domestic flights? Passengers could travel on hydrogen-powered aircraft across Britain within five years under government-backed plans

https://www.dailymail.co.uk ^ | 23 January 2021 | By DARREN BOYLE FOR MAILONLINE

[RomanSoldier19]

Aircraft without pilots could be flying commuters to UK regional airports within a decade - possibly using hydrogen as fuel making them environmentally friendly.

British aircraft manufacturer Britten-Norman is working alongside technology company Bear Blue to first develop a semi-autonomous plane with just one pilot, followed by an aircraft with no humans on the flight deck.

The government has pledged £1.8 million to the project, which could see the first aircraft carrying passengers by the mid 2020s.

The Civil Aviation Authority, who regulate Britain's skies are currently working on guidelines for 'operations that present an equivalent risk to that of manned aviation'.

Aircraft manufacturer Britten-Norman will use their twin-engine Islander aircraft - which is renowned throughout the industry for its reliability and ability to operate from remote airstrips.

The aircraft, which are all built of the Isle of Wight, first flew in 1965 and entered service two years later.

They have been modified to carry passengers, cargo, drop parachutists, and even act as surveillance platforms used by the police and the military.

According to The Times, several regional airports are being prepared to allow semi-autonomous and zero-emissions aircraft to operate within the next five years. During the scheme's first stage, the aircraft's pilot will be supported by an 'autonomous co-pilot'.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting, "What can go wrong!"

[bgill]

Didn't we already play a game of stuff falling from the sky?

[Vigilanteman]

That worked out so well that they issued a set of postage stamps to memorialize the achievement:

As I recall, there were three of them in the series. But the above was the only one I was able to get when I was a boy over a half century ago . . . and the stamps were almost as old back then.

[catnipman]

“But humans are not going to ride in robot plane, will want Emergency Human up front.”

it’s been said that the main reason modern aircraft include a living human pilot onboard is that in the event of a catastrophic failure or accident, the living human pilot has HUGE incentive to try to save his own life ...

[Vigilanteman]

Now I understand why the stamps are so rare. They only sold less than 200,000 of them TOTAL and destroyed the rest. This was 1930, so only about 7% of the pricey stamps printed were sold. Just wow!

[Patriot777]

They’d best keep those monstrosities over the ocean and run them like a giant UCAV cargo only. Second thought, don’t do anything. Go to the pub and have a pint and watch “Keeping Up Appearances”.

[Organic Panic]

It’s government backed. So it must be good.

[Organic Panic]

Glitch

[DanZ]

Will they be running Windows XP?

ONLY is they have 5.25" floppy discs

[Seaplaner]

There is another term for pilotless airplanes...

...passengerless airplanes.

[BiteYourSelf]

Yup first thing I thought of.🙄

[BiteYourSelf]

DOS4.🙄

[Zuriel]

Instead of worrying about highjackers, we’ll be worrying about highhackers.

[EEGator]

Nothing complex about the z-coordinate addition...

[EEGator]

“Would you like to play a game?”

[Thank You Rush]

I was going to say it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a really big explosion so why not? For us in the USSA, it’s been 20 years!

[norwaypinesavage]

"possibly using hydrogen as fuel making them environmentally friendly."

This is either a bald faced lie, or the author is just incredibly stupid. Large quantities of hydrogen are made today out of fossil fuels. Making hydrogen from electrolyzing water it just too energy intensive to be commercially viable, and gives off just as much CO2 as burning it. There will not be enough wind turbines and solar panels in 10 years to do it then, either. Hydrogen is not an "environmentally friendly" fuel today, nor will it be so in a decade either.