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Life could get a lot easier for commercial pilots.
BBC News reported today that a Jetstream aircraft was recently the first pilotless plane to make it across airspace in the U.K.
"Although there is still work to be done it would seem that, on the basis of the success of this flight, a UAV [unmanned air vehicle] could operate in different classes of airspace,” said Andrew Chapman, an Unmanned Air Vehicle expert for British National Air Traffic Control Services' (NATS).
The Jetstream-31 flew across British airspace last month under the control of a ground-based pilot and NATS air traffic controllers as a part of a series of tests to determine the viability of drones as passenger carriers.
Pilots were still inside the cockpit during the flight, as a precaution, but reportedly did not control the aircraft for the whole duration of the flight.
The flight was part of BAE System's ASTRAEA (Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation & Assessment) program, which hopes eventually to replace pilots in the cockpit with pilots on the ground.
If properly vetted, and then integrated into commercial airlines, the change could bring some welcome relief to tired pilots. The airline industry has been under fire for years for overworking its pilot corps.
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