Pilotless Flying

London - As a blue and red 16-seater plane accelerated along a runway last month in northern England, there was nothing to suggest its voyage was anything out of the ordinary.

But minutes later, as the plane turned north and began a 500-mile round trip from Lancashire to Inverness, history was made. Once the craft was safely at cruising altitude, the pilot flicked a switch and handed control to a trained controller sitting at a computer screen many miles away on the ground. 

For the first time in aviation history, a “pilotless” passenger plane was flying over mainland Britain. That concept might make many people uneasy. But, according to the air industry, it is the future of flight.

Some predict that within five, ten or 20 years, commercial jets will routinely be flown by remote control over our towns and cities.

So will we ever get used to climbing aboard our holiday flight to Cyprus or Greece and, instead of being greeted with a welcome from an upbeat and commanding captain, be met only with an automated message?

And those soothing words of reassurance in mid-air as the plane is buffeted through a nasty patch of turbulence? They, too, could soon be a thing of the past.

Supporters of so-called “autonomous aircraft” justify their developments on safety grounds. If most accidents are caused by human error, they argue, then surely it makes sense to remove people from the equation?

But the arrival of such craft in our skies raises disturbing questions. Some fear it could make passengers more vulnerable to computer failure and put planes at greater risk of being hijacked by cyber-terrorists hacking into control systems.

And however much the industry might insist on their absolute safety, how many of us would actually dare to go up in such an aircraft?

Britain and the US have been using unmanned military drone aircraft for years. However, the next generation of pilotless planes are not designed for warfare, but to fly passengers and cargo around the globe. 

 http://www.iol.co.za/travel/travel-news/would-you-fly-on-a-plane-with-no-pilot-1.1517644#.UZbgesqnCrE

 http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130502-pilotless-planes-plan-to-take-off