Already have passenger planes being flown as drones ?

About 15 years ago 2 large planes locked out the pilots. From taking control of during a emergency.
Oh well.

Planes have had autopilot for a longgggggg time. They have had landing beacons at most airports that make landing partially automated since the 80s or 90s. I’m no pilot but I’ve watched an episode or 2 of air disasters. I also don’t fly

I don't know of 2 planes that "locked" out pilots from controlling the aircraft.
There were 2 accidents involving the Airbus. One was at the Paris airshow where the new Airbus was taking off and flew into the ground, and another was the one the crew "stalled" all the way into the ocean from high altitude.
Initially, there were claims that the auto pilot prevented pilot intervention.
Are these the ones referenced in cyclops post?
Most airliners have full auto land capabilities including braking. The E-190 I flew for American had such capability. Furthermore, the talk was of aircraft capability to even taxi to the gate.
The Sims we used even had ground personnel waving us into the gate for parking.

The Wright Bros. were working on an auto pilot. They were truly innovative.

Freight haulers would love to get pilots out of the cockpit...

the airbus that stalled and crashed into the ocean was Air France flight 447 back in 2009.

IIRC....they speculated the plane had a frozen pitot tube from an icing event and the pilots ignored the altimeter when the autopilot turned off and the pilot kept trying to climb, putting the plane something like 35-40 degrees upward and slowed the thing down to about 50 knots

That was 1 of the 2.

Modern fighters on aircraft carriers can be landed by the flight computers. Great for badly wounded plane and pilot.

Scott Danforth said:

the airbus that stalled and crashed into the ocean was Air France flight 447 back in 2009.

IIRC....they speculated the plane had a frozen pitot tube from an icing event and the pilots ignored the altimeter when the autopilot turned off and the pilot kept trying to climb, putting the plane something like 35-40 degrees upward and slowed the thing down to about 50 knots

Click to expand...

that is correct.
If memory serves:
the captain had stepped into the bathroom. I believe the relief pilot had taken the seat. The airbus is 100% fly-by-wire. There is no mechanical standby control connection. Understanding the Airbus computer is absolutely critical. Furthermore, recognition of a stall situation is Private Pilot 101 stuff. Neither one of these were evident in this accident.
The Airbus side controllers can be operated independently so if one pilot is moving his controller and the other pilot is also, it adds to the confusion. They were confused.
Continuing....by the time the captain entered the cockpit and recognized the issue and began corrective actions, it was too late.

I do not have Airbus training. So this is from what I read years ago, so memory is my only source.
There was a Dash-8 accident up in Buffalo years ago. I've got multiple thousand of hours in that type. The captain stalled that aircraft also. Point is, lack of basic piloting skills, for whatever reason, kills. It doesn't matter aircraft size or sophistication.

should we get into the MCAS issue?
was that the "2" of the 2 ?

Sperry had an auto pilot in 1912.

I do not fly for any reason. Except in a Piper Cub, in a search and rescue, looking for my brother. I was totally drained after the flight. Pilot risked our safety to help find my brother.

I get to read crash reports from both the military and NTSB rather often. The most common determining factor in most crashes is aircrew/pilot error. Generally speaking, the systems do what they are designed to do pretty consistently.

I'm not saying there aren't airframe or avionics issues - automated or otherwise - from time to time. But, overall the data isn't going to support that they are a significant risk in flying. (Even though I prefer more "analog" aircraft.)

Another crash was unbelievable. The crash occurred because
The aircraft company changed the the Autopilot switch from UP/ON to DOWN/ON. Never sending out a update bulletin about reversing the switch logic.

southkogs said:

I get to read crash reports from both the military and NTSB rather often. The most common determining factor in most crashes is aircrew/pilot error. Generally speaking, the systems do what they are designed to do pretty consistently.

I'm not saying there aren't airframe or avionics issues - automated or otherwise - from time to time. But, overall the data isn't going to support that they are a significant risk in flying. (Even though I prefer more "analog" aircraft.)

Click to expand...

Correct
Automated systems were designed to reduce pilot workload, thereby enhancing safety. The pilot , however, is the one responsible for the safe operation of said aircraft.

re-current training involved the study of accidents and why they happened.
Including our own company. Sobering.