What will happen to the career of "airline pilot"?

Question

When you look at flight technology as it is today, where will airline pilots be in 25 years? There is rapidly increasing automation in airline cockpits, to the point that a plane is essentially capable of take-off and landing (the two most complicated parts of flight) all by itself, and autopilot, which serves to maintain a plane's altitude, heading, airspeed, etc. has existed for many years. With the advent of unmanned aircraft, it is becoming increasingly obvious that pilots will soon be un-needed in the capacity they are today.

I'm just curious; I've been an aspiring pilot for a few years now, and it seems that by the time I actually get there, most of the actual 'piloting' will have been taken over by computers. Now, it's just a matter of getting people to trust a computer with their lives, and the pilots won't be needed anywhere. (except on the ground, to take over in the event of failure).

I'm just afraid that the career will get boring, compared to what it is today.

Answer 1

I don't see the career going away in 25 years. You can not replace the judgment aspects of piloting with a machine. There are many decisions that need to be made based on what is going on outside of the aircraft that a computer would not be able to make. One example that comes to mind is weather avoidance. Sure, the computer could steer clear of weather that is being depicted on the radar, but what about the clouds that don't get depicted that produce some pretty good turbulence? I deviate around as many of the cumulus clouds as I can since they produce some pretty good bumps.

As for the job not getting any more boring, well, sorry but it is already pretty boring. Other than takeoff and landing it is pretty much long stretches of boredom. Of course that is a good thing as it means your flight is progressing uneventfully.

Answer 2

Contrary to what you said, 95% of the aircraft today are NOT capable of taking off by them self. Auto land is rarley used as well. IMO, the presence of the pilot in the flight deck will not disapear. The human element is there to make gudjments and desicions. No computer can match an experienced aviator's knowledge. There is simply no way that the pilot will be taken out of the cockpit. The FAA simply wont allow it.

Many pilots that I know that work for the airlines actually hand fly it up to RVSM ( 29,000ft). Only then do they engage the autopilot.

Answer 3

While the cockpits are getting more automated, the pilots have ultimate control over the airplane... The CRJ that I fly cannot takeoff without help from the pilots... Even if they could, possibly flying the ILS outbound... what happens in an emergency... I dont think a computer could have done what the pilots of the DC-10 that crashed in Sioux City, IA... he saved more than 100 lives with his ability to fly the airplane without ailerons... he used only the throttles for turns... and slowed down to shed altitude... There is no way those people would have been alive today if it werent for experience in the cockpit of that airplane...

Answer 4

I could see why this could be a concern. I would actually prefer automated takeoff and landing system - given almost all airline accidents are "human error". But that's ONLY IF there's a human pilot as the ULTIMATE backup. In another words, I want MORE layers of safety, NOT replacement of current point of failure with another.

I used to computer program (and fix other people's computer programs) for a living. And I've seen my share of crappy code (even in life and death dependent machine - i.e. hospital x-ray dosage computation). I often wonder why we don't have more computer related failures.

But if jets go all automated (with no human pilot), I will stop taking the jets. And I am speaking as person with 40 hours of student pilot training.


Good Luck

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Answer 5

The cockpit of airliners in another quarter of a century will look like this. A human captain will be sitting in the left seat. A pit bull will be sitting in the copilot's seat. The job of the captain will be to feed the dog. The job of the dog will be to bite the captain if he touches anything. HAHAHAHAHAHA

Answer 6

Don't microsoft products crash more often than pilots these days? I'll take my chances with the human element, thank you.

The profession of pilot is changing, but it won't be going away any day soon.