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It's my assumption only, that we are nearly there now. Do modern pilots do much to "man" the airplane?
A lot, actually. The plane "flies itself", err..kindof. There is still a ton of chatter between the air traffic controllers and the people in the cockpit turning the dials and pressing the buttons.
"Flying itself" is more about setting a heading and then telling the plane to maintain that heading/altitude. That, and things can still go wrong. Bad weather, bad equipment, etc. Having a pilot on board isn't that expensive, and it will result in saved lives. A computer isn't good at landing a plane with no nosegear, or diverting into a nearby river. Humans are.
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thenewgreen · 4735 days ago · link ·
Hey and gibson, offered a bit of insight in to how this is handled on a previous post that might be worth checking out: http://hubski.com/pub?id=9649
While it may be more automated now, I still think that the inner workings of the cockpit may resemble this more than we care to admit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzqdDoe8FoM :)