Airplanes that fly themselves already exist and the accepted wisdom is that we’re not too far from the day when all airplanes will be robotically operated. But maybe not. At the first annual Sustainable Aviation Foundation symposium in Redwood City, California, three experts in the field were asked about the immediate prospects for commercial autonomous aircraft and they offered three different opinions.
Joshua Portlock, founder of a survey drone company called ScientificAerospace, told attendees at SAF that the hardware and technology exist for reliable autonomy and that the only thing preventing it is the regulatory apparatus. “I have a different view,” said Willam Parks, chief engineer of Aerovironment, an engineering and design company with alternative aircraft experience extending back more than two decades. “The more I work with autonomous aircraft, the more impressed I am with pilots,” Parks said. He said the problem with autonomous systems is that even at their current high state of development, they simply aren’t good at detecting and correcting anomalies without human intervention. And there always are anomalies. “When systems aren’t working right, it’s very hard to figure out why,” said panel member Kevin Jones, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in nearby Monterey, California.
All three panel members reported different experiences and attitudes with regard to robotic airplanes. “People in general, who are not pilots, worry about collisions,” Jones said, “But I talk to my friends who are pilots and they’re not worried at all,” he added. Park compared acceptance of autonomous flight with acceptance of elevators without operators. “I nothing goes wrong, people will get used to it,” Parks added, but it will be gradual.
