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[POLL] - fully automated airplanes...

no way. the main thing that pilots are there for are systems failures and emergencies. I would much prefer to have two people up front with 5000+ hours combined experience than trusting my life to a fallable computer system.

you have to think about how the interaction with air traffic control would be handled. what happens when a controller wants an aircraft to maintain a certain altitude or fly a heading to maintain traffic separation? you certainly don't want your plane responding to a button push from someone on the ground. it's much better to have experienced pilots onboard whose own lives are riding on their decisions.

there are definitely jobs that the computers can do better than human pilots, which is why passenger jets have such sophisticated autopilots. they take the work out of flying and leave the pilots better able to handle the decision-making aspects of flight.

keep in mind also that only large airports are equipped with the facilities for landing aircraft via autopilot.

 
Uhhhhhhhhhh.... Guess what. We have fully automated landings NOW. 737-800 and 900 I know have it, the 400, 500, 600 and 700, I'm pretty sure of. 747-400's have it. 777's have it. Probably even more of Boeing's lineup. Airbus, I have no idea. Takeoffs aren't automated only because of the insane number of variables that could cause an abort.

Climb, cruise and descent are prettymuch automated - the pilot is just there to babysit and tell the plane to do what the little people on the ground tell them to - until somthing breaks, which happens a gajillion times more often than people would like to think.
 
Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Uhhhhhhhhhh.... Guess what. We have fully automated landings NOW. 737-800 and 900 I know have it, the 400, 500, 600 and 700, I'm pretty sure of. 747-400's have it. 777's have it. Probably even more of Boeing's lineup. Airbus, I have no idea. Takeoffs aren't automated only because of the insane number of variables that could cause an abort.

Climb, cruise and descent are prettymuch automated - the pilot is just there to babysit and tell the plane to do what the little people on the ground tell them to - until somthing breaks, which happens a gajillion times more often than people would like to think.
Click to expand...

It's no wonder the pilots like to have a few drinks. After all, they've taken away their responsibilities with the automated processes. :Q :Q

 
You can autoland a properly equipped aircraft (most airliners out there) on an ILS equipped runway, just not in bad conditions (like CATIII visibility) unless the runway systems are specifically approved for it because when you're landing absolutely blind controlled by all three autopilots (757, 767, 747), that localizer and glideslope beam better be damn accurate.

As for pilotless cockpits, as much as I hate to say it, I think it'll be here someday. Computers f-up too though, like here, and incidents like Sioux Falls wouldn't have been surviveable in the least with today's computers.
 
I probably would not, well not for awhile anyway.

Also CAT III approaches are pretty much automated precision landings assisted by ILS and GPS data.

Most parts of commercial flights including climb to cruise, cruise and landings are not hand flown anymore. It is mostly done by flight plans inputed into the computer and then handed off to autopilot. I used to be a flight student btw.
 
ya know. they already ahve that. the pilots are just there for emergencies. one day while taking jetblue, we land and the pilot goes on the air and says...."that was a completely automatic landing done by the computer"

lol...Im glad he didnt say that before we land.
 
I'm surprised people are objecting so much.

As has been brought up a few times, we largely have this now.

Automated flights actually make a lot of sense, for all the same reasons automated cars do - except the reason we don't have computer controlled driving is because there are 900,000 miles of road you'd have to equip with sensors etc - whereas there are probably only a thousand airports you'd have to retrofit.

Computers have come a long way in the last 20 years... I have no doubts that someone could pull it off.
 
there will *always* be a pilot in aircraft. Whether he just presses 'go' and sits back is another matter. There must be someone on board who could cope with a system failure.
 
Originally posted by: everman
Military UAVs are paving the way.
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UAVs still have a pilot, in a manner of speaking. He or she is just not *in* the aircraft - they're back at headquaters playing a glorified video game 😛

Nate
 
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