Single-Pilot Passenger Aircraft

The American aerospace giant Boeing is actively working on technology that would remove the need for two pilots in the cockpit of its passenger jets. Existing European aviation rules state that passenger planes with more than 20 seats, must have a minimum of two pilots in the cockpit. But Steve Nordlund, a Vice President at Boeing, said that autonomous technology that would allow for a reduction in on-board crew, was being developed at a “good speed.”

He said Boeing “believes in autonomous flight and self-piloted aircraft” and the firm’s commercial aircraft division was “working on those technologies today. I don’t think you will see a pilotless aircraft of a 737 in the near future,” he says. He suggested that cargo jets could be the first to experiment with this new technology; but that it made “business sense” to pursue a reduction in the number of on-board crew on passenger planes too. “A combination of safety, economics and technology all have to converge and I think we are starting to see that.”