this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2023
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Don't most planes fly almost entirely on automated systems nowadays? The pilots mainly handle takeoff, landing, and monitoring the instuments if i'm not mistaken.
That said, remote controlling a plane of any kind seems like a very, very bad idea, cargo or not. If the 737 Max prevented pilots controlling the plane from the actual cockpit, I'd not like to think about what a similar plane would do in the event of a poor radio control signal and faulty instrumentation
Thousands of military drones have been remotely piloted for decades. This news isn't as ground breaking as it might seem. Some of these drones are large: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk
I know a military drone isn't the same as a passenger carrying airplane, but for cargo I think the only reason this isn't already a thing is because drones are military tech and most governments don't want that falling into the wrong hands.
My first thought was it's already being done with drones.
I'd be curious, what the military's loss rate is to non-combat issues.