That (remote control of civilian aircraft) would be such a rich target for hackers. I would much rather see the civilian aerospace industry implement carefully

That (remote control of civilian aircraft) would be such a rich target for hackers. I would much rather see the civilian aerospace industry implement carefully audited, carefully deployed autonomy (starting with partial autonomy), rather than remote control. Civilian aerospace does not have the security focus that the military has. Even if you solve the security problem from airplane black-box controller all the way to the remote control cockpit, and even if you find civilian pilots willing to fly planes when a remote pilot can override them at any time... there are there costs of satellite communications, costs of designing and installing black-box remote controls on dozens, even hundreds of types of commercial aircraft, and costs of staffing remote control cockpits with pilots who can fly every type of commercial plane, 24/7.