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Planes already can land themselves, and have been able
to for some time.
So...
Navigation: check
Fuel gage: check
Autopilot with landing capability: check
It seems that once a computer determines that the
course does not have a reachable destination within
fuel
tolerances, it should
just target an airport and land
regardless of pilot input
[link]
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There are these things called circuit breakers
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Aircraft systems are strongly biassed
towards" inaction"; even critical systems like
the stick pusher on high-tail rear-engined
coffins like the MD-82 are designed so that
the slightest imperfection will inhibit
operation. |
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Nudge the control yoke on an airliner and the
autopilot drops out. |
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It it trivially easy for an experienced crew
member to intentionally bring about
circumstances where the automatic systems
disconnect, except for some parts of die-by-
wire designs like the airbus. |
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Clearly not technically unworkable |
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The worst words to hear on the flight deck are
"what's it doing now?" This feature would most likely
cause multiple accidents while trying to prevent that
once-a-
decade freak occurrence. |
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Can this nonexistant super-autopilot communicate with ATC's? Ground crews? |
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I can just imagine now, wailing and hand-wringing when the accidentally activated autopilot goes and lands an Airbus 380 straight onto a runway under repair, or over the top of a smaller noncommercial aircraft performing an emergency landing. Or any of a huge number of possibilities. |
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I warrant that there is no such thing as a foolproof system for safeguarding against a suicidal or terrorist pilot. Even exotic arrangements such as 3-pilot input-polling could be compromised by a determined individual or group. |
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There's inherent risk in every activity we do. Generally our perception of risk is incorrectly biassed due to excessive focus on consequence/magnitude and poor evaluation of probability. |
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We should focus on reasonable, achievable, realistically priced systems. Cost/resources are asymptotal when approaching 0% error. |
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That was a really good book, [bigsleep] |
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// The worst words to hear on the flight deck are "what's it doing
now?" // |
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The worst words to hear on the flight deck are "What do you mean, all
gone ? I didn't get any of that ... OK, here's the corkscrew, open
another". |
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The worst word to hear at the moment of one's death is, "Oopsie ! " |
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