Report: Boeing to Begin Testing Self-Flying AIRPLANES

Many say there���s no way they���d ride in a self-driving car.

It seems likely, then, that they would have nothing to do with self-flying airplanes.

As it happens, they might have to actually make that decision one day, because it appears that self-flying planes are indeed on the radar, so to speak.

According to the Independent, Boeing is very much interested in developing aircraft that can fly without any assistance from human pilots.

Although, at first blush, such a proposed vehicle may seem like an outrageous idea to some, the truth is that airplanes currently fly without a great deal of hands-on pilot interaction. During the cruising phase of a flight, air crews do very little actual flying of the plane, and even takeoffs and landings are now largely automated.

The next frontier, though, concerns the application of artificial intelligence to the ���automation equation,��� so that the aircraft will be able to make decisions that are typically left up to pilots.

Speaking to Reuters about the possibility, Mike Sinnett, vice president of product development at Boeing, said, ���When I look at the future I see a need for, you know, 41,000 commercial jet airplanes over the course of the next 20 years. And that means we���re going to need something like six hundred and seventeen thousand more pilots. That���s a lot of pilots.��� Continuing, Sinnett said that ���one of the ways that may be solved is by having some type of autonomous behavior, and that could be anything from taking instead of five pilots on a long haul flight down to three or two, taking two pilots down to one in a freight situation, or in some cases going from one to none.���

The first significant step in testing the self-flying concept begins this summer, when Boeing will use cockpit simulators to try out the relevant technology.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large