In August 2022 it became known about the intention of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to replace the co-pilot in the cockpit of passenger aircraft to the virtual already in the 2030s. According to RBC, the department plans to develop such robotic system by the end of 2024 and has allocated 2.9 billion rubles for this purpose.
The Sheremetevo aviation personnel trade union opposed this initiative. Trade union has sent a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin with a request to redirect the funds to direct support of the aviation industry: creation of Russian planes, employment of flight school graduates, and support of the state corporation for ATC. The union noted that flight safety can only be ensured by a crew of two pilots. And asked the logical question, “Who will make the decision and perform the landing if something happens to the only pilot?”
There have been known instances where a single pilot has been left in the cockpit of a civilian airliner flying with passengers on board by tragic coincidence.
On September 18, 2022 during the flight EO762 Novokuznetsk – St. Petersburg of ICAO B737-800, RA-73343 the captain of the airplane Kireev A.V. got sick. It was decided to make an unscheduled landing at Omsk airport. Kireev died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.
On November 24, 2019, during an Aeroflot flight between Moscow and Anapa, co-pilot Damir Akhmetov became ill. The plane landed urgently in Rostov-on-Don, but even before landing the pilot died of a heart attack.
The need for a co-pilot in the cockpit is confirmed by the Germanwings A320 crash. On 24 March 2015, during flight 4U9525, the pilot handed over control of the plane to the co-pilot. Andreas Lubitz, who was alone in the cockpit, deliberately put the plane into descent mode. The investigation revealed that the co-pilot, who suffered from permanent depression, decided to end his life. He locked himself in the cockpit and steered the plane into a mountain range.
The airlines want to leave one pilot in the cockpit of a passenger plane to save on pilots’ wages. Regulators and manufacturers are looking at it with caution, but in principle this question has been resolved, all that is left is to develop an automated system that would replace the co-pilot in the cockpit, implement it, and most importantly, overcome the psychological barrier for those who will fly in such aircraft – you and me.
Alexander Efremov, Doctor of Engineering, Head of Aircraft Dynamics and Control Department at Moscow Aviation Institute, spoke about the prospects, pros and cons of single-pilot aircraft.
– Alexander Viktorovich, why did the issue of replacing two pilots with one?
– We are gradually moving towards the transition to a single-pilot crew, work in this direction is now being carried out all over the world. There are just two main motives: saving money and reducing the likelihood of accidents due to human error: according to ICAO statistics, about 75% of accidents are due to human error.
In addition, the reduction in the number of pilots on board is associated with the layout of the aircraft. We in MAI and a number of other organizations are working on the creation of a new concept and conducting fundamental research on a new generation of supersonic passenger aircraft. To fly at supersonic speeds, such an aircraft should have a very narrow fuselage. This means that two pilots will not fit in one row [and how will the passengers be seated in the cabin??? – RuAviation]. It turns out that you have to seat either one, or one after the other.
– How will the transition be carried out from a technical point of view? After all, the ground infrastructure, information transfer, and the cockpit itself will have to change.
– Of course, the question of how to keep one person in the cockpit without increasing the load on him, while intelligently distributing all the functions performed by the left and right pilots is a very difficult task. Especially on takeoff and landing, where both crew members interact as much as possible.
First of all, a lot of work has to be done on the information display. The airplane has to be easy to pilot, both in normal and abnormal conditions.
Regarding interaction with the ground in abnormal situations, one of the current trends is the ability to transfer control of the aircraft to the ground crew. This is a very difficult and expensive task. And, of course, the reliability of all systems has to be much higher.
– About systems, that is a very interesting question. Because more and more airplane control functions are being handed over from man to computer. What work is currently being done in this area at MAI?
– We are working very intensively on the forecast display, which should reduce the influence of the human factor, which is a frequent cause of air accidents. It will improve piloting accuracy and significantly relieve the pilot, who won’t have to watch a dozen instruments.
Tests of the display in extreme conditions have already proved its effectiveness. According to the results, this way of presenting information can increase the accuracy of piloting by about 3-4 times, calmly cope with atmospheric disturbances and make a safe landing.
– How difficult is it to land a huge aircraft by ground service?
– It can be done, but there are a number of specific problems. For example, the signal from the ground to the aircraft can lag up to 1.5 seconds. That’s a lot of time, and in manual control mode, it can lead to a disaster. We are working on how to compensate for this by developing certain algorithms, but so far all the work is at the research level. All these innovations require many years of work.
– When, in your opinion, can we expect the aircraft to be flown by a single pilot?
– That’s not two or three years, but a much longer horizon. I think about 20 years. The obstacle to a rapid transition is not only the solution of a number of the technical problems I mentioned above. There is also a psychological question. Would you agree to get on a plane with one pilot? And without a pilot at all? Ask yourself that question.
However, gradually, as automation and intelligent flight systems improve and are introduced, this psychological barrier will go down.
