> I'm thinking of a plane built from the ground up to never be piloted by a human. A missile like drone really. I'm not sure if that would work. Missiles can

> I'm thinking of a plane built from the ground up to never be piloted by a human. A missile like drone really. I'm not sure if that would work. Missiles can put a lot more stress on the airframe because they're literally single-use disposable items. Something that takes the "plane" role would probably be larger (so missile solutions may not scale) and would have to account for things like fatigue over time. I'm reminded of the Mig 25: the planes are capable of flying at Mach 3.2, but doing so wreaks the engines. If it was a missile, it'd operate a full speed no question; but since it's a reusable plane, it's operationally limited to Mach 2.8.