Evolution of the Flight Crew: From a Team of Five to None?

 DALLAS – Improvements in automation technology may eventually eliminate the need for a Co-Pilot on commercial flights, a potentially disruptive trend that has generated safety concerns among Pilots and Cabin Crew.

Single Pilot Operations (SPO) refers to flying commercial aircraft with only one Pilot in the cockpit. The sole Pilot would be assisted by advanced onboard automation and/or ground operators, providing piloting support services.

According to a whitepaper from the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the evidence and experience that includes more than a decade of study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) show that the safety risks and challenges associated with SPO far outweigh any potential benefits.

The paper further adds that the increased workload for the sole Pilot, the loss of a layer of monitoring and operating redundancy in the cockpit, and the difficulty of a single Pilot in handling several emergency scenarios are the most significant risks of SPO.

An Industry Shift?

Commercial flights must have at least two Pilots in the cockpit, according to the current US law, FAA rules, and EU legislation. However, in January of this year, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) revealed it was considering the relaxation of the rules that restrict Single-Pilot operations in commercial aviation.

In 2021, several media outlets reported that Cathay Pacific (CX) and Airbus were working on a project named Connect, which was intended to reduce the number of Flight Crew on long-haul flights by using a single Pilot in the cockpit for most of the flight time.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Airbus aims to certify its A350 XWB family aircraft for single-pilot operations starting next year. On its website, Airbus claims that autonomous flight has the potential to deliver increased fuel savings, thus reducing operational costs of operators while supporting Pilots in their decision-making and mission management while in the cockpit.

In light of a recent The Times report on Airbus’s Christian Scherer, one time in charge of the world’s biggest aircraft maker, about his belief that commercial flights can operate with a single pilot as the industry looks to cut costs and increase safety through greater automation, we thought it wise to revisit the evolution of the flight crew.

https://youtu.be/IyNCO2sspNA?list=PLjZ2_Qezj910ocLApFaCjZIN_LZHGIuyq

5, 4, 3, 2... One Pilot in the Cockpit?

Since the beginning of air travel, the role of Piloting a commercial aircraft has been divided into different members of a Flight Crew, each one of whom has defined duties and responsibilities. Some position titles were a creation from Pan Am, drawn from nautical terms, denoting a command structure similar to that seen on ocean ships.

At the beginning of the air travel era, a typical Flight Crew would include a Captain, who remains the highest-ranking member of a Flight Crew, followed by a First Officer, a Flight Engineer, and a Third Officer who would serve as a relief Pilot. In some Soviet-built planes, the Flight Crew would include a Navigator and a Radio Operator.

As times evolved, so did aviation. The technological legacy from World War II permeated into civilian aircraft, making them faster, safer, and more reliable. From the primitive Gyroscopic Autopilots from the 1930s to the state-of-the-art AFCS (Avionic Flight Control System) in the Lockheed L1011 Tristar, the workload in the cockpit began to lighten, and the number of Flight Crew also began to dwindle.

With the introduction of the Boeing 737 in 1969, the position of the Flight Engineer became obsolete, with most finding their way on widebody jetliners only. By the 1980s, with the introduction of the Boeing 767 and the Airbus A300 that brought digital technology to the cockpit, the role of the Flight Engineer disappeared.

The roles of the navigator and radio operator would also become jobs of the past by incorporating reliable navigational systems such as the Delco Carousel, first introduced with the Boeing 747 and the Vickers VC-10.

A New Type of Copilot?

Commercial aviation is the safest means of transportation in the world, with a track record that has improved even as the industry expands. Many variables contribute to this, but the highly qualified pilots who fly their aircraft into increasingly busy skies, 24 hours a day, in all forms of weather, are at the top of the list.

Scherer and others argue for lowering the size of large aircraft's flight crews, possibly to only one pilot, while SPO proponents say that decreasing crew size will result in cost savings. Is this then a question of profits over safety, or are we entering a new era of SPO and autonomous flight but with the risk of over-relying on automation?

As for artificial intelligence— a topic we couldn't leave out of this post, although it is not yet capable of replacing pilots, Marisa Garcia from Forbes says AI's potential lies in simplifying flight searches, providing more competitive airfares, and assisting airlines in achieving sustainable flight operations.

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Featured image: Pilots in the flight deck. Photo: Qatar Airways