Jetmakers to explore single pilot planes

Boeing and other plane manufacturers are exploring single pilot planes to cut costs.  Cargo planes likely to be first on the single-pilot trial but passenger jets could follow if there is public support.

Once there were four (post war propeller airliners), three (early jet transports) on the flight deck. Then the number of flight crew fell to two when the Boeing 767, 757, and the Airbus A300 changed the way cockpits were designed in the 1980s. Now, jetmakers are studying what it would take to go down to a single pilot, starting with cargo flights.

The motivation is simple: saving airlines tens of billions of dollars a year in pilot salaries and training costs if the change can be rolled out to passenger jets after it is demonstrated safely in the freight business.

But with the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and a deliberate crash by a Germanwings pilot in the last few years, earning public trust and ensuring safety is critical. The issues loom large as single-pilot flying concepts are fleshed out at the Singapore Airshow.

“We are studying that, and where you will first see that is probably in cargo transport, so the passenger question is off the table,” Boeing research and technology vice-president Charles Toups said of one-pilot operations.

It would take a “couple of decades” to persuade passengers to take a single-pilot jet, he said, adding that gaining public support for the concept would be a step-by-step process starting with proliferation of self-driving cars. Boeing co-operates with General Motors to develop technologies for autonomous flight.

Singapore Technologies Engineering’s ST Aerospace demonstrated to delegates how a cockpit could be modified for one pilot when the firm converts passenger jets to freighters.

“The interest is global,” ST Aerospace’s chief operating officer, Jeffrey Lam said. “I think some [cargo operators] are watching each other; quite certainly if one jumps on board, you would expect the others to not want to fall behind because there’s a lot of cost savings here.”

Although some small business jets can be flown by a single pilot, commercial jets carrying passengers and cargo require two pilots at the controls. That protects against the potential incapacitation of one pilot and helps with the cockpit workload. After the Germanwings crash in 2015, in which a disturbed pilot locked himself alone into the cockpit, and crashed the aircraft into the Alps, regulators worldwide introduced rules requiring two people in the cockpit at all times.

But such rules were lifted two years later when they were found to add little to security while introducing new risks. For now, regional cargo flights seem the most realistic area for single-pilot flying.

Kevin Shum, director-general of Singapore’s Civil Aviation Authority, said flight technology was advanced enough to create a one-pilot cockpit in as little as five years.

“But it is a question of the human factors,” he said, citing incapacitation, distraction and fatigue as the biggest problems that would give regulators pause for thought. “That I think will probably take a bit more time to work through.”

Airbus and Boeing jets are designed for two pilots, and taking one out of the equation would need a revamp of the flight deck. More automated systems would be needed, as well as a way for controllers on the ground to take over if needed. A NASA study published in September was not encouraging.