Aircraft without pilots

I'm just starting an appropriately-named thread for this topic, as it seems
like something worthy of discussion.

The specter of full automation replacing pilots entirely continues to loom
ever larger in commercial and military aviation. The old arguments against it
are beginning to ring quite hollow. It seems that it is only a matter of time
before aviation for any purpose other than its own sake will be automated for
reasons of safety and economy. The only question is: How long will it be?

I think that automation that effectively carries out an entire flight will be
with us long before pilots are actually removed from the cockpit. We are
almost there already, as even ordinary airliners can fly themselves to a large
extent from 200 feet above the runway on take-off all the way to rollout on
landing. A bit more automation can easily take care of the rest. However, I
also think that, given the proven versatility of human beings when it comes to
handling the unexpected and unanticipated, versus the catastrophic failure
modes of digital systems when they encounter the same, there will be pilots in
the cockpit until long after flights are fully automated, just to be on the
safe side.

Radio control of aircraft is another option, but I think it's a bad one.
There are too many ways in which the vital link between ground station and
aircraft can be interrupted. Even subway trains, which are vastly more
constrained in their behavior and are thus much easier to automate, still
continue to operate with local control within the train (human or computer) in
most cases. The problems with aviation are orders of magnitude greater.

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