Airliner automation

[XFool]

Airbus experiments with more control for the autopilot

BBC News

It's difficult not to be a bit overwhelmed by the Airbus campus in Toulouse.

"Over the past 50 years automation in aviation has transformed the role of the pilot. These days pilots have a lot more assistance from tech in the cockpit.

Project Dragonfly, conducted on an Airbus A350-1000, extended the plane's autonomy even further."

""I don't know if any pilot is particularly comfortable with the computer being the sole arbiter of whether or not a flight successfully lands," said Tony Lucas, president of the Australian and International Pilots Association.

In addition, he is not convinced that self-flying planes will be able to deal with complex scenarios that come up."

[Tedx]

I always thought they pretty much flew themselves anyway these days and the pilot(s) were only there for comfort (like windows on a plane. I also read that getting rid of windows on an airliner would make them stronger and cheaper to make - but folk just didn't like a windowless set up, even if there was screens showing exactly the same as what a window would show)

[GrahamPlatt]

An old one…

What is the ideal cockpit crew? A pilot and a dog. The pilot is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to bite the pilot in case he tries to touch anything.

[airbus330]

I always thought they pretty much flew themselves anyway these days and the pilot(s) were only there for comfort (like windows on a plane. I also read that getting rid of windows on an airliner would make them stronger and cheaper to make - but folk just didn't like a windowless set up, even if there was screens showing exactly the same as what a window would show)

Sorry to disappoint, but the vast majority of landings are done manually. Many of your favourite holiday destinations have no option but to land manually. Autoland is almost exclusively for very poor visibility landings and only available if both the aircraft and the airport have the required equipment operational. When an autoland occurs, there are 2 very attentive pilots monitoring the procedure and will intervene at the anytime the landing becomes unviable due to a range of technical reasons. Over a 30yr career I averaged 2 autolands a year.
As far as the future is concerned, further automation is inevitable and most of this progress is with an eye to reducing the need for 2/3 or more expensive pilots to be on an aircraft. I doubt pilotless airliners will appear that quickly, but one man and his unqualified to land 'dog' are already being looked at by at least one far east carrier.

[AF62]

Autoland is almost exclusively for very poor visibility landings and only available if both the aircraft and the airport have the required equipment operational. When an autoland occurs, there are 2 very attentive pilots monitoring the procedure and will intervene at the anytime the landing becomes unviable due to a range of technical reasons. Over a 30yr career I averaged 2 autolands a year.

Undoubtedly a stupid question, but if autoland can land (with supervision) at equipped airports in poor conditions then why isn’t it used (with supervision) at equipped airports in good conditions?

Is there a cost to using it when the pilots are ‘free’? Is it slower so delays traffic at busy airports? Is it ‘harder’ on the aircraft? Why not use it all the time?

[redsturgeon]

I remember some 30 or more years ago coming into Heathrow on a 747 I think aand the pilot announced that he had landed completely automatically just to test the system.

John

[Lootman]

if autoland can land (with supervision) at equipped airports in poor conditions then why isn’t it used (with supervision) at equipped airports in good conditions?

I am not a pilot but can take a guess. ILS systems have beer around for decades and are fairly simple. They basically line you up with a runway and manage your speed, heading and angle of descent. They cannot do anything tricky like talk to ATC, handle cross winds or perform a go-around.

Also I think airlines would want their pilots doing landings all the time, to keep them in practice. There is a danger that pilots might get lazy, rusty or switch off if the plane did everything by itself all the time.

And then the more general question with autonomous planes. Do customers want to fly on planes that fly themselves? I do not think we are close to that.

Finally there have been problems with the over-automation of planes. The 737 MAX problems happened because the tech that was controlling the plane went wrong and then the pilots struggled to over-ride it. In fact Airbus planes generally have more automation than Boeings, and not all pilots like that - they claim they lose the "feel" of the aircraft that you get through more manual and traditional controls.

[airbus330]

Autoland is almost exclusively for very poor visibility landings and only available if both the aircraft and the airport have the required equipment operational. When an autoland occurs, there are 2 very attentive pilots monitoring the procedure and will intervene at the anytime the landing becomes unviable due to a range of technical reasons. Over a 30yr career I averaged 2 autolands a year.

Undoubtedly a stupid question, but if autoland can land (with supervision) at equipped airports in poor conditions then why isn’t it used (with supervision) at equipped airports in good conditions?

Is there a cost to using it when the pilots are ‘free’? Is it slower so delays traffic at busy airports? Is it ‘harder’ on the aircraft? Why not use it all the time?

You're correct. It slows down the traffic flow, mainly to protect the accuracy of the ILS ground equipment. You can do an autoland at any time, at any correctly equipped airport, but try asking for a practice autoland at Gatwick on a busy morning and you'll get a curt no. In the past, this was a more common request for recency requirements, but that is now mostly covered in the simulator. As said above, the weather is often against an autoland with restrictive cross wind limits and some runways being limited by landing performance when AL is used. Another big issue is that very many popular European airports don't have the facilities and won't ever invest in them. 15yr ago quite a few holiday destinations used approach procedures that a Lancaster pilot would have been familiar with. GPS based approaches have thankfully made this a thing of the past. GPS based autoland is coming, but AFAIK not operational yet. (might be wrong). There is an interesting in use US system on a bizjet that senses pilot incapacitation, puts out a mayday call and then autonomously selects and lands at the nearest suitable airport! The future of whats possible!