Single Pilot Airliners one step closer

[D.J.]

Money over safety seems to be the motivation here. I know that if they do end of certifying this operation, I would want to know what segment of the flight is “single pilot” and for how long? Also, there should be some threshold of weather conditions or maintenance status that “overrides” single-pilot ops.

Just my 2 cents.

D.J.

[CAGE]

Agreed DJ, the fact that normal citizens aren’t in an uproar about this is mind boggling. Maybe it is just not all over the mainstream media to cause a stir. I wouldn’t set foot on an airline that was solely single pilot. Yes I know AF aircraft are “single” pilot but flying as elements offsets that. There have been accidents where both pilots had no idea and some saved by the other pilot. Can’t imagine being over the Atlantic on a 350 solo with all the passengers. CRM is a big factor for that!

[Deck]

We’ve gone from 3-4 pilots on the flight deck and 3-4 engines for long over water flights to two for both during my lifetime and when those concepts were first introduced, the pilot unions objected and said safety would be compromised. However that has not been the case due to better avionics, engines, and aircrew training.

The FAA and other regulatory authorities demanded an equivalent level of safety or better before authorizing. And they will do this again for single pilot operations. For example Boeing and Airbus will basically make all First Officer duties automated through the avionics and probably Artificial Intelligence. The Captain will still call for checklists like ‘before starting engines checklist’, and AI will respond and ensure all switches are really in the proper position. AI does not get fatigued and make mistakes due to fatigue and can fully take over and safely land the airplane if the pilot becomes incapacitated.

I’m currently typed in and fly a small jet called the Cirrus SF50. This airplane is fully certified with over 500 delivered. This is a single pilot aircraft and if the single pilot becomes incapacitated, a passenger can press a red emergency button and the jet will gather weather and fuel info, determine best airport to land, then auto-land itself while squawking emergency and making canned emergency radio calls on both Guard and tower/unicom frequencies. If the pilot is solo and after a certain amount of inactivity or cabin pressure loss, the jet will do the same.

I’m also a captain in a Boeing 757 for a major. This aircraft with 40 year old technology can auto land and I’m required to use this when the weather falls below Category 1 minimums.

My point is the technology to safely do this is already here and certified and I suspect it will come to large transport category aircraft sooner than most think in the same way that we reduced the number of pilots on the flight deck and the number of engines on the aircraft during the last 40 years.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by  Deck.

[tsssnake]

Based on all the AI already implemented that you mentioned I don’t think it will take more than a decade for US companies to start implementing single pilot airliners