Will Unmanned Aircraft Be Developed?

Recently, Boeing announced a plan to develop pilotless passenger aircraft, but what does the future hold for this plan? According to Reuters, Boeing intends to test some technologies related to the construction of unmanned aircraft next year. Although passenger planes can currently perform part of the flight process using computers in the cockpit, the supervision of the pilot and co-pilot is necessary to take control in case of system errors or emergencies. Mike Sinn, Vice President of Boeing's Product Development, states, "A pilotless aircraft may seem like a distant idea, but considering that drones costing less than a thousand dollars have entered the market, it can be claimed that the underlying technology for this process is ready." He, who is also a pilot, plans to test the mentioned technology in a flight simulator. Mike Sinn announced that next year he will be aboard an aircraft where artificial intelligence will make some decisions instead of the pilots. He said, "I really don't know how we will do this. But we are currently researching and programming some algorithms." According to Reuters, the Vice President of Boeing's aircraft manufacturing division emphasized that the technology for pilotless passenger aircraft is in its early stages, stating, "Initially, such an aircraft must fully comply with international safety standards to fly. It is still unclear whether pilotless passenger aircraft can perform emergency landings or not." The Vice President also mentioned that by next year, they will be aboard an aircraft that uses artificial intelligence for control and makes decisions instead of a pilot. Two reasons can be cited for the development of this plan: one is increased safety and the other is reduced flight costs. If artificial intelligence can be developed to perform safe flights without the need for a pilot, there is a strong economic incentive for airlines to order such aircraft, as pilot salaries are high, and eliminating the pilot's job would be very profitable for airlines. However, how practical can this plan be? The most important reason for this plan is safety. If non-human guiding systems and artificial intelligence can provide more safety than humans, then the development of these technologies can be considered. However, the problem is that artificial intelligence still has a long way to go, and even its use in cars faces many uncertainties. Another issue is the potential for hacking artificial intelligence during flight, which could easily lead to a horrific scenario. Another current consideration is the use of ground control for aircraft like drones. This method is currently much safer than artificial intelligence, but the major problem is that this method does not necessarily offer greater security and lower operational costs compared to using a pilot. In some of the world's most powerful military drones, a flight team is controlling them from the ground. So what difference does it make whether the flight team is inside or outside the aircraft? For military aircraft, greater security is a priority because if a drone is hit, there will be no human casualties, but for a civilian aircraft full of passengers, this parameter does not exist. Regarding this plan, Matthias Thomson, head of Airbus's flying car division, told Radio Farda: "Perhaps in ten years we will be able to produce this product; however, many things need to advance by then, including artificial intelligence, flight control systems, navigation systems, and safe flight technology. We have already started working on it." Currently, in some drones, artificial intelligence is combined with ground control to guide the most advanced drones, but still, in complex missions, it is manned military aircraft that carry out operations because human intelligence is still superior to artificial intelligence, and a pilot inside the aircraft has a higher operational capability than ground control. Nevertheless, the use of pilotless aircraft remains one of the future plans for the aviation industry worldwide. In a project, Airbus is developing a flying car that will have an automatic pilot for the flight section based on routes determined by passengers. Matthias Thomson, in response to the question of how safe such a vehicle could be, said: "For Airbus, safety in flight is the most important principle, and we will not produce this product until we are confident about its safety." Perhaps after the success of self-driving cars and subsequently self-flying cars in the next 50 years, we can expect the commercialization of self-flying aircraft as well. What is currently clear is that despite all the limitations, Boeing has begun work on developing these aircraft.