Back to Squawk list
  • 15

Air Force Tests Contraption That Can Turn Any Plane Into a Robot Plane

Submitted
Scientists say new ROBOpilot completed a two-hour test flight, essentially turning a manned plane into a drone. (www.nextgov.com) More...

Sort type: [Top] [Newest]


patstphens1174
Richard Fox 5
I've officially given up the fight for human pilot jobs. They have come too far with this and the technology is there. Is it morally right? No. Will it line someone's pockets? Yes. Therefore, it will go ahead.
ssobol
Stefan Sobol 3
What exactly is not "morally right" about it?
patstphens1174
Richard Fox 2
Replacing hundreds-of-thousands of human jobs for the sake of some nerd's 'dream to create THEIR utopia where people are lazy and don't have to communicate with each other'. e.g. no taxi driver to talk to...
xilikon
Make me think of the movie Airplane! with the inflatable pilot
Lancairguy
Lancairguy 2
First thing that I believe will happen is the one person cockpit. If the pilot needs a restroom break an ACARS message sent to the ground will result in the aircraft being remotely monitored/flown until the pilot returns and confirms via ACARS that he/she is back on deck. If another German wings event or Malaysian 370 event occurs the day this will happen will move forward significantly. Technology for this is already available.
ssobol
Stefan Sobol 2
Seems to take up a lot of space in the plane and require removing a lot of the cabin interior. Might work ok on large aircraft, but on small planes it would reduce the utility of the aircraft if all the interior space and useful load is taken up by the "pilot".
jrsphoto
jrsphoto 1
Yeah, the fact that it was made removable complicates the design significantly. Taking something like a Cessna and making it remotely controllable is not that technically challenging by itself. Lots of off the shelf tech to make that happen. But making it easily removable would be much harder
NF2G
David Stark 1
What could possibly go wrong?
jrsphoto
jrsphoto 1
A “Contraption”. Lol. Is this the 1920’s?
Quirkyfrog
Gosh, sign me up to fly in a plane where the pilot has no vested interest in keeping the plane in the air. NOT!!!
airuphere
airuphere 0
Sure the robot has no consciousness , but the people making it and controlling it sure do. And if nothing else $$$ says to keep in air

nightflyer182
nightflyer182 -1
So many problems with this concept. The biggest one is that pilotless aircraft will never, EVER, make its way in to commercial aviation...NEVER!!!
nightflyer182
nightflyer182 2
I meant pax.....
airuphere
airuphere 1
Pilotless, No. As airbus said One Pilot in Plane and a first officer on ground monitoring multiple flights in a console will be the first step, but that’s a long way off. For Passengers.
As for Cargo (also commercial) it will be the first to be pilotless at some point. All manuf. have hinted it.. never say never..
garritt
garritt 0
so the remote control can land safely in the Hudson ...DUH !!
airuphere
airuphere 1
Not what I said. Pilotless Passenger Aircraft.. won’t happen.. cargo eventually.. military.. already there. But never say never. They’ll find find a way to have a human avail for emergency.. or maybe AI duhduhduh
btweston
btweston 0
RAWR!!!

Login

Don't have an account? Register now (free) for customized features, flight alerts, and more!
Did you know that FlightAware flight tracking is supported by advertising?
You can help us keep FlightAware free by allowing ads from FlightAware.com. We work hard to keep our advertising relevant and unobtrusive to create a great experience. It's quick and easy to whitelist ads on FlightAware or please consider our premium accounts.
Dismiss