Airbus and Dassault Pushes for Single-Pilot Operations Amidst Rising Automation

Hold their annual board and shareholder meetings on single-pilot aircraft. Give it a few years to prove the concept. Then come back and make a solid proposal.

Let's poll the Pax, I suspect many (me included) would not feel safe on a single pilot commercial flight

Bottom line Corporate greed over safety; short and sweet.
Even this pig does not wear or pretend to wear lipstick...............

At least once a week I read about an in-flight pilot incapacitation sometimes even resulting in death. I would never get on a plane with just one pilot. Are these people nuts?

It is undoubtedly a great way to help reduce air travel. Speaking for myself: I will never be found aboard a complex aircraft that is single-pilot flown.

What happens if the single pilot aborad an Airbus 340 half way across the Atlantic suffers a fatal heart attack? What system continues to fly this plane and land it safely at the nearest accommodating airport?

Well it’ll definitely reduce passenger numbers and flights, because most of us would avoid the hell out of a single pilot flight.

When will the greed stop? When will overabundance be enough?

One aspect that has not been mentioned but will over rule most else is insurance. Most underwriters that I have met won't touch a single pilot public transport aircraft with a barge pole and their increased premiums, assuming you could get enough underwriters to take the risk, will very soon dwarf the cost of the second pilot. The possibility of sophisticated Hi jackers taking over a ground control station and leading fully laden aircraft into a twin towers situation must also be considered.

It is imperative the any commercial aircraft be equipped with two pilots regards of the degree of automation because in the unlikely event of one pilot going air sick or gets incapacitated, the other pilot can land the plane safely on land / sea thus saving lives of passengers as well as saving the aircraft from heavy losses.

Automation is great, however there still needs to be a human to punch the buttons, and if the ONE pilot keels over from a heart attack, who will push the buttons? One pilot ops for airliners will never happen IMHO

WOW, its sure going to get hard to get real life experience if you can’t go along as a copilot. Next thing you know the new captains you trust your passengers with won’t have a clue how to deal with problems they might have encountered as copilot.

Just the "Camel's nose under the tent" for the following step to fully autonomous flight. Such hi-tech desires and ambitions just won't go away . . . in fact, they will never go away.

I really like your comment Sean Awning it would also be a good confidence inspiring move for the customers!

Been flying since age 14 in a J-3 (with an instructor). Flew in Viet Nam (3AM and a DFC), corporate, and retired as a captain for a major U.S. passenger carrier. Anyone who would depend upon a single pilot in commercial aviation needs to have their head examined!

As I have stated before on a similar article, this has nothing to do with safety, rather another tiny tick in a box to say ‘my aeroplane running costs are cheaper than the competition’

If they are serious about automation replacing real people, then replace managers with AI from the CEO down, save a fortune and I would suspect no deaths from bad decisions.

If there isn't two in the front office, and it don't fly on jet fuel, Lew Tripp ain't going.

Stop Madness
Let’s keep 2 Pilots
Passengers Safety should always be priority Number One

Starting with military cargo operations concurrent with commercial cargo operations. Followed by short haul regional operations to /from dedicated airfields.

I think this one is more about one pilot in the cockpit during portions of a long haul flight for Airbus and the ability of one crewmember to rest in the cockpit for Dassault. Some relatively short international flights require augmented crews under Part 121 that may be better served with automation. Same with Dassault where they propose a fully reclining cockpit seat for brief crew rest on long flights given the state of the automation on their jets.

Defibrillator rushed to cockpit as medical emergency forces WestJet flight back to Calgary
Submitted about a year ago
A plane flying from Calgary to Atlanta Monday afternoon was forced to turn around due to a medical emergency involving the pilot. WestJet flight 1590 landed safely at Calgary International Airport at 1:12 p.m. Monday, just less than about an hour after taking off, according to public flight logs. Strangely WestJet declined to comment on the condition of the pilot citing "privacy". EMS that had been dispatched to the airport did not have any patient contact and left so I wonder if the… (headtopics.com) More...

We may have to remind Airbus and Dassault of the scope and importance of the classic four-eyes-principle. One of the more important reasons that my airmiles are safer than my ground miles is that I drive my car alone.

Garmin has a system for smaller planes (including multiengine and light jets) that will take total control of the aircraft if someone pushes the emergency button. No reason a plane with an extensive autopilot like pretty much any modern airliner couldn't have it too.

https://discover.garmin.com/en-US/autonomi/

this makes as much sense as a self-driving car! With all the automation on board a 777, the Koreans still put one in the sea wall at SFO.

No way I would fly in a plane a single pilot.

I think that the concept of one pilot is good . Now I also want you to spend 9 months producing it, then 21 years training it plus 3 more years specializing in air movement above the ground, you will also need a A I check ( overseer) in place to clear regulations.. Am I much to advanced for you?? I'll ride it it, but in 27 years I'll be dust.

There is a very good reason for having two pilots at the controls of a passenger carrying jet. The development of new technology for controlling the path of the aircraft doesn't obviate the reason(s). This may be one of those things we can do but perhaps should not do. Technology is not reason enough to take this step, and the savings of overhead doesn't justify this step. We need more time and development before pushing this forward.

What IF that one pilot has a heart attack and dies on one of those long haul trips? I can't imagine the fear that will strike the passengers riding in a pilot-less ghost plane.

I can't help but wonder how AI would handle extreme or 'unusual' failures i.e. would AI have 'opted' to land in The Hudson? Could AI compose creative solutions to problems? After reading 'Fate is the Hunter', I can't help but think of some of the scenarios that Captain Gann managed to come up with that saved the day that AI probably could not even consider. How does one 'code' pilot instinct and 'thinking outside the box', even making the aircraft do things it's not supposed to do to avoid catastrophe?

Been flying since age 14 in a J-3 (with an instructor). Flew in Viet Nam (3AM and a DFC), corporate, and retired as a captain for a major U.S. passenger carrier.


Anyone who would depend upon a single pilot in commercial aviation needs to have their head examined!

Just like inventing the Atom bomb to end the world war and hoping that all will be fine, AI is the next invvention which will bring our world closer to midnight on the doomsday clock.

What will happen when the pilot has go and lay a couple of turds. Ask one of the flight attendants to mind the store? This is ridiculous. But, hell, Airbus always was ridiculous.

Just stop. With some older pilots dying right in their flightdeck seats, this is an outright crazy idea. Of course it comes from Airbus.

Reminds me of Otto in the farce flick Airplane. Otto suffered a deflating emergency. No thanks, I would rather walk, thank you!

It would appear to me most of the commenters did not read the first line of the article, so I will quote it “…advocate for one-pilot operations during majority of long-haul flights.”

That does not state nor imply only a single pilot in the air. One should infer that both pilots are in the cockpit for takeoff and landing, so for a very long haul flight you might see a reduction from 4 to 3 pilots and on a shorter one from 4 to 2 as a possibility, depending on the crew rest rotation.

Will ticket sales increase so company can make a profit? I don't think so.

Do NOT support one pilot !!.
Have we had pilots sick ?, Yes.
Have we had pilots dead?, had one recent !!.

Do not agree !, support! fs

When the Flight Engineer was eliminated many decades ago and a three man workload was reduced to two man, there were accidents and innocent lives were lost. When automation recently brought many innocent lives to an abrupt end on the 737 Max even with the attention of a two man crew, I thought the point had been finally made to administrators about the dangers of relying solely upon automation and how valuable the human element really is. I see now that there is no level of stupid that administrator will not stoop to as long as someone saves a few pennies and continues not to have any regard for common sense or value for human life. Jeff Goldblum playing Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park reminded us that often we become so eager to do something because we "can" that we completely forget to think about whether or not we "should." I vote that we should not. I support my vote with critical thinking and the lives of every soul lost since flight engineers were eliminated that could have been saved by the addition of that 1 extra set of experience on board.

Sadly I don’t think this will end well…

Just say NO!
I'll take a bus or drive myself!

With all of these (Injected) pilots getting ill/dying in the cockpit.....good luck with THAT! If I still took 'plane rides', there would be no way on Earth that I would ever set foot on a 'single pilot' flight!

Ok, then let the commercial aircraft mechanics work in maintenance also without checker and without the four eye principle in their own responsibility. The experiences for the introduction of the four eye principle in the air and on the ground was written with blood and are an iron pillar of aviation. The designer of pilotless aircraft with passenger transportation will certainly not want to do without redundant systems. So why should one forego redundancy when using human “components”. I think in the mass pax transportation will the flight without pilots on board meet a psychologically big and high barrier and rejection. In some cases have human intuition and experience saved lifes. (Sorry for my poor and simple english)

No pilot cargo flights are already being conducted in northern Canada .

To be clear about Dassault's plans: the Falcon 10X will still be a two-crew airplane. But to reduce the need for a third flight crewmember on long-range trips, the pilot seats will be able to fully recline to allow one of the pilots to lie flat and rest during the cruise phase while the other monitors/flies the airplane. Both pilots remain in the cockpit at all times when this occurs, and the flying pilot can always awaken the resting pilot if there's any problems.

These comments are somewhat speculative. I encourage everyone interested to read the technical details of US Patent US 8,761,965

Spoiler alert: Boeing already has this figured out - way back in 2014- -with as few as zero pilots or any number of unauthorized pilots.

One less $500K a year body in in the cockpit is a good thing for the stock shareholders. Imagine how the profit margins will increase.

You can’t stop AI! It’s coming and there is nothing you can do. Start with Cargo Operations, then move to passenger operations.