Airbus to Expand Cockpit Automation

Better yet, "To Serve Man".

mmMMMMMmmmm....soilent green.

"Klatu Barata Niktu"
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

"Skywise" wrote in message
...
"Matt Barrow" wrote in news:6v5eg.75$Q73.9093
@news.uswest.net:


"Skywise" wrote in message
...
"FLAV8R" wrote in
:

Wow! I feel like I'm reading some sort of SciFi horror story where man
(and
woman) are replaced by computers and man is doomed to be eradicated.
What next?! Cars that drive themselves? Oh wait! Mercedes has already
been
working on that one.
And my company is working to remove all its workforce and what it can't
remove it outsources to India.

David

You are obsolete! (from a Twilight Zone episode)

Better yet, "To Serve Man".

mmMMMMMmmmm....soilent green.

One man, sautéed in olive oil...

In a previous article, John said:
European jet maker Airbus is taking an unprecedented step to expand
cockpit automation: onboard computers that will automatically maneuver
jetliners to avoid midair collisions, without any pilot input.

Each Airbus will be piloted by a pilot and a dog. The pilot is there to
engage the autopilot at the beginning of the flight, and the dog is there
to bite the pilot if he attempts to disengage it.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Compared to system administration, being cursed forever is a step up.
-- Paul Tomko

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
In a previous article, John said:
European jet maker Airbus is taking an unprecedented step to expand
cockpit automation: onboard computers that will automatically maneuver
jetliners to avoid midair collisions, without any pilot input.

Each Airbus will be piloted by a pilot and a dog. The pilot is there to
engage the autopilot at the beginning of the flight, and the dog is there
to bite the pilot if he attempts to disengage it.


Yawn, that's an old "joke" saw that published in Flying 12 years ago.

Why not? It's about time. On those real long haul flights, and red-eye
four hour ones, pilots sleep, and often the one that said he will watch
things, sleeps too. They don't want to but it happens.

John wrote:
European jet maker Airbus is taking an unprecedented step to expand
cockpit automation: onboard computers that will automatically maneuver
jetliners to avoid midair collisions, without any pilot input.

Known for its pioneering use of computers and software to push the
automation envelope, this time Airbus has decided to cross a new
threshold in replacing pilot decisions with computer commands. For the
first time, flight crews of Airbus planes will be instructed and trained
to rely on autopilots in most cases to escape an impending crash with
another airborne aircraft. Currently, all commercial pilots are required
to instantly disconnect the autopilot when they get an alert of such an
emergency, and manually put their plane into a climb or descent to avoid
the other aircraft.


http://online.wsj.com/public/article... main_tff_top

or http://tinyurl.com/lnlky

In article , John
wrote:

[snip]

Anyone who can't see the potential problems with this should be required
to understand the many times automation is discussed in comp.risks.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

Bob Noel wrote:

In article , John
wrote:

[snip]

Anyone who can't see the potential problems with this should be required
to understand the many times automation is discussed in comp.risks.

Apparently Airbus is putting serious engineering into this and not just
slapping something together. Why be afraid of any automation? I don't
think that inherently unstable aircraft like the B-2 or X-31 could fly
at all without heavy duty automation. Let's not forget that people
(pilots) have many potential problems too. Consider that some of the
worst nuclear accidents (Chernoybl, Idaho Labs, TMI) were at least
partially caused by humans bypassing or overriding automation systems.

In a previous article, Jeff Rogers said:
slapping something together. Why be afraid of any automation? I don't
think that inherently unstable aircraft like the B-2 or X-31 could fly
at all without heavy duty automation. Let's not forget that people

Let's also not forget two crashes of the Saab Gripen and one of the YF-22
caused by incorrectly tuned software.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
I've never understood why women douse themselves with things that are alleged
to smell of roses/tulips/freesias. What exactly are they trying to attract?
Bees? -- Tanuki

In article ,
Jeff Rogers wrote:

Anyone who can't see the potential problems with this should be required
to understand the many times automation is discussed in comp.risks.

Apparently Airbus is putting serious engineering into this and not just
slapping something together. Why be afraid of any automation?

I'm not afraid of automation. I'm afraid of people who place too much
faith in automation. Sure, humans make mistakes, sometimes
spectacular mistakes. And automated systems make mistakes.

Note that I never ever said automated systems are better or worse than
human systems. I have this futile hope that people will think thru all
the risks and potential problems.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

On Sat, 27 May 2006 22:15:38 -0400, Bob Noel wrote:

And automated systems make mistakes.

hmm, they work as designed. If somebody programmed a loophole and the
system comes to this point, well. Then there is don't see a mistake. Those
systems don't make any decisions. They do what the programmer told them to
do.

#m
--
Did you ever realize how much text fits in eighty columns? If you now consider
that a signature usually consists of up to four lines, this gives you enough
space to spread a tremendous amount of information with your messages. So seize
this opportunity and don't waste your signature with bull**** nobody will read.