Would you ever allow drone software to fly your plane? Even if the ticket was cheaper, over half of air travelers surveyed in 2017 declined.
While accidents in the air are generally rare, pilots are still human and occasional news stories headline about rants, fights, drunkenness, or pilot distraction. But drone solutions may change this. Drone control software installed on every plane would feature an experienced guidance system that’s always learning more.
Autopilot already controls anairplane for nearly the whole the flight. The software can handle the most distressing landings when visibility is minimal and pilots can’t tell where they are. It can create a map of its surroundings, including any obstacles, to keep the plane on the right track.
Drone solutions will soon log more flying hours than humans ever. When you combine the enormous amount of flight data and experience, drone control software applications are on their way to becoming the world’s most experienced pilots.
The World of Drones
Drones come in a range of styles from tiny quad-rotor copter toys to missile-firing winged planes. They can even be as large as a seven-ton aircraft that can fly 34 hours in the air.
When drones were initially introduced, they were flown remotely by humans which merely substituted a pilot on the ground. Newer, innovative droneas a service models don’t need pilots and can fly themselves based on human-defined routes. Universities, military agencies, and businesses are testing larger, smarter drones to operate without human pilots.
The Value of Pilot Experience
Becoming a pilot requires time and experience. To fly a small plane for personal or non-commercial use, you need to log 40 hours of flying instruction before getting your private pilot’s license. If you want to be a commercial pilot, you need to log at least 1,000 hours before serving as a co-pilot.
With drone software, every plane can have a pilot on board with as much or more experience. One software system used in many aircraft at once gains more flight time and experience each day than a human could accumulate in a year. Software pilots aren’t susceptible to fatigue, disorientation, distraction, or other human impairments which can lead to errors or cause problems in common situations.
There’s already some concern from aircraft regulators that human pilots are forgetting how to fly when taking over autopilot in an emergency. While humans may need a minute (or several) to figure out what went wrong, such as aircraft damage, a computer could assess the situation in seconds. This could buy enough time to navigate a safe landing.
In most cases when damage causes a plane to be uncontrollable, the result is a tragedy. An advanced automated system could make small changes to the plane’s steering and use its sensors to determine the effects of the movements. The software essentially learns how to fly all over again with a damaged plane.
Breaking the Psychological Barriers
The biggest barrier to fully automated flight isn’t technical, it’s psychological. People will generally put their lives in the hands in humans but not in computer systems. This thinking may shift as people begin to understand drone software has more flight experience and capabilities than any human pilot.
At Insitu, we develop drone as a service options for military and commercial use. To learn more about our innovative drone solutions, contact us today.
While accidents in the air are generally rare, pilots are still human and occasional news stories headline about rants, fights, drunkenness, or pilot distraction. But drone solutions may change this. Drone control software installed on every plane would feature an experienced guidance system that’s always learning more.
Autopilot already controls anairplane for nearly the whole the flight. The software can handle the most distressing landings when visibility is minimal and pilots can’t tell where they are. It can create a map of its surroundings, including any obstacles, to keep the plane on the right track.
Drone solutions will soon log more flying hours than humans ever. When you combine the enormous amount of flight data and experience, drone control software applications are on their way to becoming the world’s most experienced pilots.
The World of Drones
Drones come in a range of styles from tiny quad-rotor copter toys to missile-firing winged planes. They can even be as large as a seven-ton aircraft that can fly 34 hours in the air.
When drones were initially introduced, they were flown remotely by humans which merely substituted a pilot on the ground. Newer, innovative droneas a service models don’t need pilots and can fly themselves based on human-defined routes. Universities, military agencies, and businesses are testing larger, smarter drones to operate without human pilots.
The Value of Pilot Experience
Becoming a pilot requires time and experience. To fly a small plane for personal or non-commercial use, you need to log 40 hours of flying instruction before getting your private pilot’s license. If you want to be a commercial pilot, you need to log at least 1,000 hours before serving as a co-pilot.
With drone software, every plane can have a pilot on board with as much or more experience. One software system used in many aircraft at once gains more flight time and experience each day than a human could accumulate in a year. Software pilots aren’t susceptible to fatigue, disorientation, distraction, or other human impairments which can lead to errors or cause problems in common situations.
There’s already some concern from aircraft regulators that human pilots are forgetting how to fly when taking over autopilot in an emergency. While humans may need a minute (or several) to figure out what went wrong, such as aircraft damage, a computer could assess the situation in seconds. This could buy enough time to navigate a safe landing.
In most cases when damage causes a plane to be uncontrollable, the result is a tragedy. An advanced automated system could make small changes to the plane’s steering and use its sensors to determine the effects of the movements. The software essentially learns how to fly all over again with a damaged plane.
Breaking the Psychological Barriers
The biggest barrier to fully automated flight isn’t technical, it’s psychological. People will generally put their lives in the hands in humans but not in computer systems. This thinking may shift as people begin to understand drone software has more flight experience and capabilities than any human pilot.
At Insitu, we develop drone as a service options for military and commercial use. To learn more about our innovative drone solutions, contact us today.
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