Hi Peter,
here’s another video of one of the automatic landings (filmed from inside the cockpit) showing the actual landing sequence in more detail and giving additional facts on the project:
The landing is performed by the redundant fly-by-wire system. On the copilot’s side the fbw-stick can be seen (not moving), on the pilot’s side the mechanical backup is retained (original stick, moving).
I have removed some posts so this stays relatively on topic, and emailed the text of one long one to the poster so he can start a new thread with it.
It would not appear to be economical but actually a 4-seater has a similar fuel burn per passenger to a modern airliner.
The problem is that it does not scale i.e. you need a big plane to get the range and the speed.
It might happen for very short haul stuff; 1-2hrs in the air.
But who knows? Forecasting stuff decades in the future is a total lottery. The only thing you can be sure about is physics. If they make nuclear fusion work then everything will change (though batteries will still need to improve some 10x).
@AdamFrisch wrote:
It is inevitable that the long term future for human transportation is in individual aircraft, jet like cars are today.
I am really surprised by this statement. Do you really think this possible ?
100 years to solve the energetic equation, production costs, and individual aircraft size coping with actual weather ?
Not to mention the need to defeat phobia of the air… :-D
I really don’t think this possible, but I hope I am wrong !!
Other opinions here ?
aart wrote:
buzzing around electrically
Not using solar or wind power….the ONLY way electricity becomes cheap and viable is first with nuke plants eventually with fusion plants. Then to make electric aircraft viable they will have to be recharged while flying via wireless transmission of electrons.
And in a hundred years nor does petroleum, so we’re all be buzzing around electrically! Although I am going to be a really old fart by then, can’t wait!
Loco – I think that’s actually the savior of GA. Automation. Once flight becomes mostly automatic and a PPL is no harder or more expensive to do than a driver’s license, we’ll see huge growth in aviation. It is inevitable that the long term future for human transportation is in individual aircraft, just like cars are today. Airlines won’t exist in 100 years.
I believe that flying will be automatized. It’s for emergency use today, but if in 20 years Ryanair can get rid of pilots, they will not hesitate.
Lifts also had operators at some point.
I think it is a great idea. Innovation is at the heart of GA. These things will in time become standard and if nothing else will provide a degree of passenger comfort and resistance to single pilot ops.
Shorrick_Mk2 wrote:
This is not new. The first unmanned DA42 flew autonomous mission
Yes. Diamond is after the military market for unmanned flight and has had this in a prototype for three years or so.
The system is basically a GPS guided fly-by-wire in a GA plane which would make it too expensive to equip as a safety feature for the GA niche Diamond’s planes are built to fill. Still, if costs can be reduced over time much of this kind of tech would be welcome in GA by those who welcome things like the BRS chute.
