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Dumb question but what is the benefit? I imagine pilots will still need to be there to take over during an emergency, so it won't save on pilot costs, right? An

Dumb question but what is the benefit? I imagine pilots will still need to be there to take over during an emergency, so it won't save on pilot costs, right? And they can already lay back and relax during most of the flight so it won't really help with fatigue. Is the idea that autopilot can somehow take off with less risk than a human pilot? Can a human pilot take over sufficiently quickly if something goes wrong? Is pilot error during phases where such autopilot could've been running a source of accidents in practice?

Robotbeat 6y ago
I think the idea is you might be able to reduce the required number of pilots from 2 to 1 for some flights.
- kylec 6y ago
  Or 0, eventually
  - Robotbeat 6y ago
    Sure, but you get a huge amount of the labor cost reduction just by going from 2 to 1 and probably have a much easier time justifying it. Labor costs are already a pretty small part of air freight costs, for instance, so proportionally, the improvement in total costs (in both absolute and relative-to-total terms) from going to 1 from 2 pilots is about the same as going to 0 from 1. EDIT: Just to illustrate... a 777 Freighter can fly a 5000 mile route at like 500 miles per hour carrying about 100tons of freight, I think in one shift so you only need a pilot and copilot. That’s 50,000 ton-miles per hour. Air freight revenue is about $1.40 per ton-mile, so in terms of revenue, you’re talking $70,000 per hour. Pilot and co-pilot wages are much lower per flight hour than you’d imagine, around $20-50/hour, so combined, they both contribute about $70 in direct labor costs per hour, so already just on thousandth, or 0.1%, of the revenue from the freight they’re carrying. Even eliminating the pilots doesn’t reduce costs much! Much bigger difference for smaller and slower regional air freight routes.
- numpad0 6y ago
  Germanwings Flight 9525
  - Robotbeat 6y ago
    ...might have been prevented with self-flying...
  - benhurmarcel 6y ago
    had 2 pilots
    - numpad0 6y ago
      Happened when pilot was alone
justaguy88 6y ago
Cargo flights could fly without pilots, or use remote-control like a UAV
aqme28 6y ago
In addition to that-- is the pilot's salary a significant fraction of the cost of a flight?
kandeel4411 6y ago
Probably one benefit is having flights available and running 24/7, human pilots can only fly so many a day

Robotbeat 6y ago

I think the idea is you might be able to reduce the required number of pilots from 2 to 1 for some flights.

kylec 6y ago
Or 0, eventually
- Robotbeat 6y ago
  Sure, but you get a huge amount of the labor cost reduction just by going from 2 to 1 and probably have a much easier time justifying it. Labor costs are already a pretty small part of air freight costs, for instance, so proportionally, the improvement in total costs (in both absolute and relative-to-total terms) from going to 1 from 2 pilots is about the same as going to 0 from 1. EDIT: Just to illustrate... a 777 Freighter can fly a 5000 mile route at like 500 miles per hour carrying about 100tons of freight, I think in one shift so you only need a pilot and copilot. That’s 50,000 ton-miles per hour. Air freight revenue is about $1.40 per ton-mile, so in terms of revenue, you’re talking $70,000 per hour. Pilot and co-pilot wages are much lower per flight hour than you’d imagine, around $20-50/hour, so combined, they both contribute about $70 in direct labor costs per hour, so already just on thousandth, or 0.1%, of the revenue from the freight they’re carrying. Even eliminating the pilots doesn’t reduce costs much! Much bigger difference for smaller and slower regional air freight routes.
numpad0 6y ago
Germanwings Flight 9525
- Robotbeat 6y ago
  ...might have been prevented with self-flying...
- benhurmarcel 6y ago
  had 2 pilots
  - numpad0 6y ago
    Happened when pilot was alone

justaguy88 6y ago

Cargo flights could fly without pilots, or use remote-control like a UAV

aqme28 6y ago

In addition to that-- is the pilot's salary a significant fraction of the cost of a flight?

kandeel4411 6y ago

Probably one benefit is having flights available and running 24/7, human pilots can only fly so many a day