[j_rogers]

Regarding super-sonic flight in particular. IIRC, the main reason for Concorde service being discontinued was the lack of people willing to pay for it. Further, when door-to-door times are extended by excessive security and waiting at the airport it doesn't really matter if you've cut your in-air time in half.

I'd be really excited if someone airline offered pilotless aircraft. I think this is technically feasible now. I know that we are currently capable of landing planes autonomously currently. Plus this would reduce door-to-door time as well since you'd reduce the need for long security lines. After all, if there's no cockpit to hijack what is the use of screening for potential hijackers?

[TylerE]

It's a lot more complex then that. Arguably, the single root cause of Concorde being retired was the Flight 4590 crash in 2000, which hurt passenger numbers quite a bit.

Operations were further hamstrung by the very small fleet size. There are certain things that just have to be done to get an aircraft commercially viable (spare parts inventory for instance), and when you have a fleet of only 20, that will cost much more per aircraft than supporting something super-common like a 737.

It's also worth noting that Richard Brason, at least, thought Concorde was still viable, and made offers for the BA Fleet as high as £5m/aircraft, but was refused, at least partially because Airbus was unwilling to offer continued support.

[outworlder]

> I'd be really excited if someone airline offered pilotless aircraft. I think this is technically feasible now. I know that we are currently capable of landing planes autonomously currently. Plus this would reduce door-to-door time as well since you'd reduce the need for long security lines. After all, if there's no cockpit to hijack what is the use of screening for potential hijackers?

Yes, we can take-off, cruise, navigate, avoid collisions and land autonomously (landing requires a certain ILS category which not all airports have, yet) today. I don't really think the limitation is software related - it is likely to be regulations and public opinion. "Human error" is more understandable to the average person than "computer error".

There are other concerns, such as safety against tampering/hacking. However, considering how robotic Airbus aircraft already are, I am not sure those concerns are warranted. Boing is somewhat less so, by design, but they are still fly-by-wire with a computer between the pilot and the actual control surfaces.

Now, I don't think autonomous aircraft would do much for security. After all, all you need to protect the pilots is a door lock. You still have to protect the inside of a plane and the passengers, however. But they would do wonders for private jets - having a competent pilot immediately available 24/7 without paying additional salaries could be very appealing for some folks.