Unpiloted aircraft

[Skyring]

I don't think we'll see a fully autonomous airliner any time soon. Even if the technology were perfect, passengers would still want someone able to drive the thing.

But military drones operate with nobody aboard, often for extended periods. Multi-engine aircraft have been used, such as variants of the F-4 Phantom and the B-47 strategic bomber.

The day must be coming when we see cargo aircraft fly unmanned, perhaps with remote piloting. I imagine it could be cost-effective for firms like Fedex.

Or maybe I'm wrong, and the military comparison is inept. The military can often spend huge amounts of money on things that make no commercial sense.

 

[samh004]

The money the military spends will eventually result in advancements in the civilian sector (be it pax or cargo) but I'm not sure it'll be as soon as you think.

 

[Skyring]

The money the military spends will eventually result in advancements in the civilian sector (be it pax or cargo) but I'm not sure it'll be as soon as you think.

Well, neither am I!

I see that we are headed firmly down the autonomous vehicle track on our roads, and I can see immense safety, efficiency, environmental and economic grounds for doing so. I think the technology will snowball once robot cars are looked at as a system, rather than as individual vehicles. Sharing information on intentions at the upcoming intersection, for example.

Trains, ships, planes, cars and trucks: all incorporating increasing levels of robot control. Nobody steers a ship any more; they tell the navigation computer where they want to go, and the computer works out if it's safe to do so, how much to move the rudder, and then sends signals to the back end of the boat commanding same to whatever motors move the big slab of steel through the water. My car can park itself. Driverless trains - the Dockland Light Railway is an example - are commonplace.

The US has demonstrated drone carrier operations and to my mind, landing an aircraft on a carrier under way at sea at night is about as tough as piloting gets.

It's not a matter of if, but when.

 

[samh004]

Well, neither am I!

I see that we are headed firmly down the autonomous vehicle track on our roads, and I can see immense safety, efficiency, environmental and economic grounds for doing so. I think the technology will snowball once robot cars are looked at as a system, rather than as individual vehicles. Sharing information on intentions at the upcoming intersection, for example.

Trains, ships, planes, cars and trucks: all incorporating increasing levels of robot control. Nobody steers a ship any more; they tell the navigation computer where they want to go, and the computer works out if it's safe to do so, how much to move the rudder, and then sends signals to the back end of the boat commanding same to whatever motors move the big slab of steel through the water. My car can park itself. Driverless trains - the Dockland Light Railway is an example - are commonplace.

The US has demonstrated drone carrier operations and to my mind, landing an aircraft on a carrier under way at sea at night is about as tough as piloting gets.

It's not a matter of if, but when.

When I look at where we are with autonomous cars, I see the first thing we mastered were park assist systems. As that feature slowly moves from option to standard we're seeing systems that can detect pedestrians ahead on the road, cars braking, even lane change blindspot notifications and assistance. Therefore, I would imagine that the next advancement will be on the ground to eliminate accidents, before we see things in the air.

I'm skeptical the military technology will be brought across any time soon, and besides, the current trend of airplane manufacturers is still on efficiency... making things lighter, stronger, less reliant on fossil fuels. I think once that segment has run its course, or closer to, they'll start re-focusing on autonomy. That said, doesn't matter what computer you had in the plane, I'd still rather a pilot was there just in case, and for them to be there they'd still need to practice, and be fully up to speed on all the details... so they'd still be getting paid the big bucks and that would still be passed on to the consumer