Soon to be in a pilotless plane? The air revolution seems to be underway

Imagine yourself at an altitude of 10,000 meters, in the middle of turbulence, and with no one in the cockpit. This idea is no longer so unrealistic. All manufacturers, Airbus , Boeing , Thales, have been seriously considering the question of autonomous commercial flights for several years.

The aircraft of tomorrow may be like a drone, but with passengers on board. Airbus, for example, has already conducted several hundred pilotless test flights. So have startups like Xwing, which conducted the first flight of a fully autonomous conventional aircraft, from taxiing to returning to the hangar, without any human intervention. During these tests, there was still a safety pilot on board, but he didn't touch anything, and everything was monitored from a command center on the ground.

It's software, AI, coupled with sensors, cameras, and lidars that take care of everything. They handle takeoff and landing, in particular, because in a commercial aircraft today, everything else is already automated; they're flying calculators. These planes of the future would be hyperconnected. They would receive all the weather and traffic information in real time, and could adjust their trajectory in the blink of an eye.

There's even talk of significantly reducing delays and fuel consumption thanks to optimized trajectories. It's also worth noting that these autonomous aircraft would be supervised by a captain located on the ground. He has exactly the same controls as if he were in the air, thanks to cameras. He sees through the "eyes" of the aircraft, which is loaded with sensors that allow him to detect the presence of other aircraft, recognize different types of clouds to avoid storms and, in the event of a problem, take control of the controls.

The psychological barrier is enormous, especially since every air accident has a very strong impact on people's minds, as we have recently seen. It's counterintuitive, but these pilotless planes would probably be safer than today's. It's important to know that pilot errors are the cause of 80% of accidents. No fatigue, no stress, no distraction: we eliminate any risk of pilot failure in the air, like the Germanwings tragedy where a pilot deliberately drove into a mountain.

The same goes for terrorist acts on board, since the system can oppose any malicious intervention and prevent a hijacking, for example. In reality, all this will take years, with many intermediate stages: these technologies will first be used for freight, for the transport of goods, for which the psychological threshold is more acceptable. And then it will be done in stages: the first is to eliminate the co-pilot position in order to have a single pilot in the plane. In the 80s, we went from 3 to 2 and that had already been a considerable debate, now, we would go from 2 to 1 and then to 0.

Cyber ​​issues will also need to be addressed: networks will need to be reinforced to prevent any possibility of hacking the connection between the aircraft and the pilot on the ground. Finally, regulations will need to evolve. But for many aeronautics experts, the arrival of the autonomous aircraft is a revolution comparable to the advent of the jet engine.

It will depend on how airlines pass on this cost reduction. But what is certain is that for airlines, the challenge is also to make significant savings. Pilot salaries are the most expensive. According to a study conducted by a major bank, which estimates that airlines would save €35 billion per year by doing without pilots.

It's also important to know that we're preparing for a pilot shortage in the coming years. Air traffic will double in the next 20 years, and we'll need 650,000 new pilots over that period, and the schools can no longer keep up. So the transition to 1, then 0, pilots on the plane, with a commander on the ground, capable of supervising several planes, is probably the direction of history.