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Should planes be flying themselves?

Should planes be flying themselves?

  • Yes

    Votes: 4 40.0%

  • No

    Votes: 5 50.0%

  • Not sure

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .
youngturk said:
Title.
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Is the title a slang reference to masturbation? Or are you referring to an autopilot? Or some other thing that is impossible to tell since you could not be bothered to explain what you where talking about?
 
tres borrachos said:
Interesting idea. I understand why you asked, but I think complete auto pilot would be just as dangerous in the event of technology failure, which happens.
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Wait, so you think he is saying that no pilot would be involved at all? Seriously, why did he not bother to explain that? At least then it would be easy to give an answer to...it is a terrible idea for a number of reasons. What about for takeoffs, approaches and landings? Is he including that in the no pilot involvement do you think?
 
Did we learn anything from the Terminator.? ;)
 
No, as that creates a new and greater danger.

In theory for new aircraft a signal put be sent putting a jetliner into auto pilot that can't be over ridden. And, potentially, the aircraft could be remotely flown and even landed with the crew unable to over ride ground control. Yes, that would avoided what happened.

But on the other hand, if that system were hacked every jetliner in the world could be remotely flown into the ground with the crew unable to stop it. If an air traffic controller who could do the over ride wanted to kill everyone in every jetliner in that air space, so could that person.

There is little to be done to stop a person who goes suicidal and wanting to kill other people along with this from succeeding.
 
Redress said:
Is the title a slang reference to masturbation? Or are you referring to an autopilot? Or some other thing that is impossible to tell since you could not be bothered to explain what you where talking about?
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Should have added some details,sorry :D I mean should they be flying without human pilots aboard.
 
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youngturk said:
Title.
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Nope.That said I would support some sort of pilot assist the way some cars have parallel parking assist, but make it more pro-active like if the plane detects a mountain and flying over or around that mountain if the pilot fails to respond after a certain amount of time or can not respond in time.
 
Redress said:
Wait, so you think he is saying that no pilot would be involved at all? Seriously, why did he not bother to explain that? At least then it would be easy to give an answer to...it is a terrible idea for a number of reasons. What about for takeoffs, approaches and landings? Is he including that in the no pilot involvement do you think?
Click to expand...

I think it because we were just posting to each other in the thread about the pilot intentionally crashing the plane. You'll have to ask him the answers to the other questions.
 
youngturk said:
Should have added some details,sorry :D I mean should they be flying without human pilots.
Click to expand...

No. The reasons are a few, but to best illustrate the problems, imagine I am flying from here in Atlanta to LAX, going from the busiest airport in terms of passengers, to the 5th busiest. In Atlanta, there are 2380 takeoffs/landings per day on average, while at LAX, there is a more sedate 1744. Now, do you really think it is a good idea to fly fully automated planes into or out of that kind of traffic(hint: it is not). Ads in the potential for equipment failure(I worked on aircraft when I was in the navy...trust me when I say this is a very real issue), god forbid sabotage, and you have a recipe for disaster.
 
youngturk said:
Title.
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The technology for self flying planes will probably be available eventually. Air Bus has been trying to develop that, and they've had one spectacular crash that I know of:



Designing the pilot out of the plane is a big goal of Air Bus. They've done a lot of that already, and it has sometimes resulted in mishaps. It all works well unless there is bad weather or unforeseen problems, like bird strikes, arise.

We aren't sure of self driving cars yet, and planes are way way more complicated.
 
youngturk said:
Should have added some details,sorry :D I mean should they be flying without human pilots aboard.
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No! why make it easier for a nut job to commandeer the cockpit - among many other bad reasons.
 
I am all for autopilot planes.

Though I think at least one of the flight attendants on each flight should have a rudimentary understanding of flying the aircraft they are assigned to just in case.
She (or he) should sit in the cockpit on takeoff and landings and bad weather just in case of a malfunction in the autopilot. Also, the FA would have to type in course corrections to avoid bad weather or in case of holding patterns.
But otherwise I think the cockpit should be locked and empty and leave the flying up to the inflatable autopilot.

Airplane-autopilot.jpg
 
youngturk said:
Title.
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Well, since you failed to explain yourself very well, I'm going to assume this is related to the Germanwings plane crash. You're proposing that the plane should have prevented the pilot from flying it into a mountainside.

And I think that's a bad idea. Planes do fly themselves for the most part these days. Autopilots can even land planes. But hardware and software can fail, and it's important to have a trained human being there to take over in case that happens.

An autopilot system that could prevent a pilot from flying into the side of a mountain could also prevent a pilot from taking over in case of an autopilot error.
 
LowDown said:
We aren't sure of self driving cars yet, and planes are way way more complicated.
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Actually, in a lot of ways, planes are much simpler to control automatically than cars are. The control scheme of a plane is more complicated, since you have six axes of movement rather than 3, but an airplane has to deal with far fewer obstacles than a car does.
 
tres borrachos said:
Interesting idea. I understand why you asked, but I think complete auto pilot would be just as dangerous in the event of technology failure, which happens.
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molten_dragon said:
Well, since you failed to explain yourself very well, I'm going to assume this is related to the Germanwings plane crash. You're proposing that the plane should have prevented the pilot from flying it into a mountainside.

And I think that's a bad idea. Planes do fly themselves for the most part these days. Autopilots can even land planes. But hardware and software can fail, and it's important to have a trained human being there to take over in case that happens.

An autopilot system that could prevent a pilot from flying into the side of a mountain could also prevent a pilot from taking over in case of an autopilot error.
Click to expand...



Human error has been the cause of almost every single airplane crash in recent history. Technology is a million times more reliable than humans, we are just loathe to admit it.

(Also I would definitely pay (once) for the newly vacant panoramic glass nose seat.)
 
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Redress said:
Wait, so you think he is saying that no pilot would be involved at all? Seriously, why did he not bother to explain that? At least then it would be easy to give an answer to...it is a terrible idea for a number of reasons. What about for takeoffs, approaches and landings? Is he including that in the no pilot involvement do you think?
Click to expand...

We have not yet used this technology thoroughly with automobiles operating on land.

Ain't gonna happen for airplanes for quite some time.

Ridiculous OP question.
 
Redress said:
No. The reasons are a few, but to best illustrate the problems, imagine I am flying from here in Atlanta to LAX, going from the busiest airport in terms of passengers, to the 5th busiest. In Atlanta, there are 2380 takeoffs/landings per day on average, while at LAX, there is a more sedate 1744. Now, do you really think it is a good idea to fly fully automated planes into or out of that kind of traffic(hint: it is not). Ads in the potential for equipment failure(I worked on aircraft when I was in the navy...trust me when I say this is a very real issue), god forbid sabotage, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Click to expand...

But how we make sure a someone's 100% mentally healthy.
 
SMTA said:
We have not yet used this technology thoroughly with automobiles operating on land.

Ain't gonna happen for airplanes for quite some time.

Ridiculous OP question.
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Airplane autopilot has been a thing for quite some time, although it's really more like cruise control. Most pilots, once reaching cruising altitude, will set commercial planes to auto. So I don't really think it's ridiculous at all.

Really, it's a question of the circumstances upon which the pilot should be allowed to take control back from autopilot. Right now, it's on will, and is always done for take off and landing. Should pilot control of the plane perhaps be limited to take off and landing? Or upon usage of some kind of mayday signal (that ground control would be alerted of).
 
Nilly said:
Human error has been the cause of almost every single airplane crash in recent history.
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This link suggests that isn't the case; Accident statistics

You'd also need to take account of times when there is a mechanical failure that pilots take action to mitigate in a way an automated system may not be able to. I think the best you can say is that's it's a complex picture.
 
youngturk said:
But how we make sure a someone's 100% mentally healthy.
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If you want 100 % no risk at all in your life, I recommend you never go outdoors. Or move about indoors.
 
DA60 said:
I am all for autopilot planes.

Though I think at least one of the flight attendants on each flight should have a rudimentary understanding of flying the aircraft they are assigned to just in case.
She (or he) should sit in the cockpit on takeoff and landings and bad weather just in case of a malfunction in the autopilot. Also, the FA would have to type in course corrections to avoid bad weather or in case of holding patterns.
But otherwise I think the cockpit should be locked and empty and leave the flying up to the inflatable autopilot.

Airplane-autopilot.jpg
Click to expand...

Yeah, remember that movie. Pretty funny when the autopilot sprung a leak and needed manual re-inflating. LOL.
Wasnt' that the Zuckerbergs already? In fact it was Dave. Airplane! (1980) - IMDb
 
joko104 said:
No, as that creates a new and greater danger.

In theory for new aircraft a signal put be sent putting a jetliner into auto pilot that can't be over ridden. And, potentially, the aircraft could be remotely flown and even landed with the crew unable to over ride ground control. Yes, that would avoided what happened.

But on the other hand, if that system were hacked every jetliner in the world could be remotely flown into the ground with the crew unable to stop it. If an air traffic controller who could do the over ride wanted to kill everyone in every jetliner in that air space, so could that person.

There is little to be done to stop a person who goes suicidal and wanting to kill other people along with this from succeeding.
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Well we could prevent doctors from giving a severely depressed pilot a "not fit to fly" letter and not notifying the airline he works for. This tragedy is a lesson in how protecting patient privacy has caused the death of 149 innocents. The Doctor should have said nothing to the pilot and immediately called Lufthansa. As it was he destroyed the mans life dream of being a pilot and sent him right over the edge...and into that mountain. So sad.
 
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Redress said:
Is the title a slang reference to masturbation? Or are you referring to an autopilot? Or some other thing that is impossible to tell since you could not be bothered to explain what you where talking about?
Click to expand...

 
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