Drone alone: how airliners may lose their pilots

Originally posted by GeminiSky
I dont think this is a very good idea at all. Whats the point in removing the flight crew from commercial airliners? I can understand removing a fighter pilot from a dangerous combat environment, but removing the flight crew from a plane carrying 300+ people? Does not make sense to me.

Also if the plane will be completely automated, will it be able to...say.. land the airplane in the water after the engine goes out in the middle of the Hudson river and position it perfectly to prevent a rapid sink rate so that the passengers can get off board safely?

Lets see a UAV do that!

Planes are already flown by robots...pilots just take off and land. My guess is that this would only cut back on the use of a pilot...but not a copilot. I think for safety measures and passenger assurance they would have to keep a copilot on board that has a safety override in case of an emergency.

[edit on 30-6-2010 by yellowcard]