Originally Posted By: Jeanette_Isabelle

The safest means of transportation is a submarine.

I think this is a serious abuse of statistics. There are too few accidents to make meaningful analysis. I also wonder if that claim takes into account the Russian Navy experience.

Large commercial jets are still safest. Getting to and from the airport is the riskiest part of a trip.

Quote:

It does not matter if the plane is flown my a Macintosh. Electronic devices fail. There needs to be an experienced pilot who can turn the computer off and fly the plane.

Electronic devices can be made reliable the same way as flight crews: redundancy.

The Space Shuttle was at best 1970s era technology, yet came close to fully electronic flight control. No part of ascent was under human control, and the only critical/challenging part of descent done by humans was rotating the nose gear onto the runway.

The switch to drones in military aviation will force the issue by drying up the supply of qualified pilots to civilian airlines. Once routine military cargo flights begin using drones there simply won't be enough human pilots any more.


Edited by James_Van_Artsdalen (07/19/13 10:47 AM)