Boeing will trial its first self-piloting planes in 2018
The future of transportation is autonomous, and giant passenger planes will be no different.
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Griffin, M. (2017) 'Boeing will trial its first self-piloting planes in 2018', 311 Institute, 22 June. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/boeing-will-trial-its-first-self-piloting-planes-in-2018/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
At this week’s Paris Airshow Boeing, who along with Rolls Royce are talking about fuel-less aircraft, announced that they are looking towards a “brave new world” where jetliners fly without pilots - and they’re going to start trialling some of the technology next year.
While the idea may seem far fetched today the fact that you can buy a self flying drone for less than $1,000 seems to have inspired their thinking, particularly the thinking of Mike Sinnett, Boeing's Vice President of Product Development.
“The basic building blocks of [self flying] technology clearly are available," he said, “jetliners can already take off, cruise and land using their on board flight computers and the number of pilots on a standard passenger plane has dropped to two from three over the years.”
Sinnett, who’s a pilot himself first plans to test the technology in a cockpit simulator later this summer and then he hopes to progress it to a live trial where an Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be in full control.
I know, rather him than you - he’s crazy!
Needless to say though a self flying aircraft would need to meet some of the world’s most stringent safety standards and that’s one bridge that most regulators like the FAA in the US, and CAA in the UK, haven’t even considered crossing yet, and without their blessing none of Boeing’s new fancy airliners, as and when they emerge, will even get off the ground.
"I have no idea how we're going to [get regulatory approval]," said Sinnett, "but we're studying [the technology] right now and we're developing those algorithms."
The airlines are also backing the idea, in part to deal with a projected need for an additional 1.5 million pilots over the next 20 years as global demand for air travel continues to grow.
“Self flying planes would need to be able land safely as Captain Chesley Sullenberger did in the "Miracle on the Hudson," said Sinnett, citing the incident in 2009 when Sullenberger, also known as Captain Sully, safely landed his US Airways Airbus A320 in the Hudson River after it lost all of its engines when it hit a flock of geese on take off from New York JFK, “and if it can't, then we can't go there."
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The future of transportation is autonomous, and giant passenger planes will be no different.
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Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
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Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 22 June 2017. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2017). Boeing will trial its first self-piloting planes in 2018. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/boeing-will-trial-its-first-self-piloting-planes-in-2018/
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