“I would compare autonomy to an open-heart surgery of our systems. Ultimately, the goal would be for a fully autonomous commercial jet along the lines of a driverless car, although that technology, which requires clean-sheet jet designs from the major manufacturers, could take until 2040, according to an estimate from Thales. ![]() Replacing the vast array of knobs and switches with more digital interfaces familiar to today’s teenagers could also help to shorten the amount of time it takes to train pilots, thus easing the shortage. The proponents of reduced numbers in the cockpit say the move, which could begin with cargo flights, is inevitable, just as pilot numbers were cut from three to two in the 1980s when the flight engineer position was axed due to improved design on new jets like the Boeing 757.Īirlines globally could save around $15 billion a year by going down to a single pilot, UBS said, and at a time of a pilot shortage this would help ensure there are enough aviators to serve a fast-growing industry. The other driver in all this is that we’re really short of pilots. “The technology to fly an aircraft on automatic is brilliant. “You can see the drivers from both angles,” said Graham Braithwaite, Director of Transport Systems at Britain’s Cranfield University. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reducing crew on long-range looks to be the most accessible step because there is another pilot onboard,” Jean-Brice Dumont, Airbus head of engineering, told Reuters at the Farnborough Airshow.īoeing Co is examining the possibility of having reduced manning in the cockpit of a proposed mid-sized jet that it aims to have in service by 2025 if it proceeds with a launch decision next year, according to UBS analysts. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File PhotoĪirbus SE and Thales SA expect the number of cockpit crew on long-haul flights, typically three or four, could be reduced to two from 2023 thanks to new technology to reduce pilot workload. FILE PHOTO: The cockpit of an Airbus A340-300 of Eurowings, a low-cost airline and fully owned subsidiary of German Lufthansa Group, is photographed as Eurowings opens a new route from Duesseldorf to New York, in Duesseldorf, Germany, April 27, 2018.
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