How close is technology to creating civilian cargo and passenger aircraft that are unmanned?

By unmanned, I mean the aircraft are either operated by pilots on the ground, or operate autonomously. Are advances in military technology such as the creation of the MQ-9 reaper and the RQ-4 Global Hawk going to transfer to the civilian world? have any prototypes been made? Is general aviation as well as commercial aviation close to losing its aerial pilots? Should civilian pilots be fearing the loss of their jobs in the air or completely?


Basically, how far along in unmanned technology outside of the military.How close is technology to creating civilian cargo and passenger aircraft that are unmanned?
The technology exists today... but it would be a problem of cost and public opinion.





There are solutions to the problems listed; i.e. bad weather, mechanical problems, etc. in order to make due without pilots. For example, an engine fire in a modern aircraft is incredibly simple to handle; the buttons that the pilots needs to press actually light up, the checklist appears on the computer screen, and each time the pilot does something the item is automatically checked off. Remove the pilot, and have the computer action the items itself; problem solved. Modern jets are certified to auto-land on a single engine. Remember that DC10 that lost all hydraulics, and had only engine power to try to land? Well the technology exists today where the autopilot flies the plane using engine control only (this technology was developed as a direct response to that accident; but deemed to costly to implement onto all aircraft worldwide). But the technology does exist!





The cost involved with upgrading every aircraft, every runway, all the navigational aids around the world, would be very pricey. Also, trying to convince people that flying around without a pilot is safe, also becomes challenging.





This was shown quite clearly in an international human factors conference where Airbus introduced technology that would save lives. Instead of the traditional ';whoop whoop! Terrain! Pull up! Pull up!'; warning that alerts pilots to impending collision with terrain/mountains, Airbus was going to upgrade the autopilot system to respond instead with: ';whoop whoop! Terrain! Take your hands off the controls!'; and the autopilot would immediately take appropriate action to save the plane and the lives of the passengers on board. Airbus' theory was that if the manufacturer could save lives, at little to no cost, then they had the responsibility to do so. Unfortunately, airlines, pilots, and passengers worldwide overwhelmingly rejected the new technology, because nobody ever wanted a computer to override the pilots.





Cost and public opinion are far more powerful factors than ';wouldn't that be cool'; or ';is it possible to do that?';. Its kind of the world we live in... but no doubt in my mind the technology exists. Reliability might come in to question, but the ability exists today.How close is technology to creating civilian cargo and passenger aircraft that are unmanned?
You won't see passenger planes that are unmanned. You have peoples lives at risk. Do you think Sullenberger would have been able to do the job that he did with not being in the plane? Part of flying is feel. Also, if there is an emergency, the pilot needs to make decisions. I cannot see someone picking up the phone to talk to someone on the ground. They would probably outsource that.





To put a different way, would you put your life in the hands of someone that would not suffer the same fate as you if they make a mistake?
We have the technology today; but do you really want MicroSoft flying any plane that you are in? They can't even get a simple home computer to work right.





How would you like to see this message while on your take off run or during your approach/landing.





'; Upgrades are available for your computer. After uploading your computer will shut down and restart. This process may take a few minutes';
The technology exists to allow for unmanned flight but it will never be allowed to be implemented on passenger planes where people`s lives are in the balance.
They can do it now... but I want to see the first set of passengers faces when you tell them that there wont be a pilot on board today... and besides there not paying their pilots anyways why not keep them up there lol
I pray to God that never happens, as even the best computer systems fail.
We're pretty far from having unmanned passenger aircraft.





Cargo, maybe, but definitely not passenger. People's lives are at stake.





Note that these ';military'; planes were designed with the purpose of spying missions, not replacing the roles of main combat aircraft.





It's not possible to program a computer that can easily adapt to and react appropriately to all situations that a person can. Unless every single flight is identical, there is no way unmanned aircraft for passenger flights will come.





Operating on the ground for civilian aircraft is possible but economically unfavorable. In order to operate such an aircraft you'll need advanced communication equipment that can precisely mimic the actions of a human in perfect real time (no lag). This is far too expensive to implement and it's just cheaper to have the pilot in the aircraft.