There have always been solo pilot planes. Including, for some time, Cessna Citations.
How do the cockpits of solo pilot Citations compare with the Citations not allowed for solo pilots?
And how do cockpits of two pilot Citations compare with cockpits of two pilot commercial airliners?
Embraer now produces solo pilot Phenom 300. And it is somehow not limited to 5700 kg: it has MTOW of 7951 kg.
And Embraer feels qualified to produce solo pilot airliners:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,716225,00.html
Could Embraer next launch 24 ton MTOW Legacy 700 and ERJ145SP, with Phenom 300 cockpit?
Michael O´Leary, of Ryanair, wants to dump copilots and let stewardesses land aircraft in emergency. Do stewardesses now land Cessna Citations and Phenom 300s in emergency? If not, who do?
Ryanair wanted to buy 200 737-s – Boeing refused. Ryanair wanted to buy 300 320-s – Airbus does not want to sell either.
If Embraer were to build a solo pilot ERJ145, would O´Leary buy and fly 400?
By: Bristol_Rob - 16th September 2010 at 15:41
For me as a not so Confident Flyer, i would feel even more uneasy if i knew there was only one Pilot flying a passenger plane.
Course it can be done and as said above i do think that Mr O’leary yet again is just trying to bring some attention to his airline, Surely if a Pilot was to lets say Die Suddenly while in full control of the Aircraft and the so say Trained Stewardess/Pilot Fell and Bumped her head cause the Plane went into a Pitch Position, Who would then Land the plane???
I think the Idea is totally Rubbish and is Yet another Money making idea without thinking about the passengers and Safety.
Just my opinion.
Rob
🙂
By: chornedsnorkack - 16th September 2010 at 15:30
Does a sexy stewardess deserve to replace Ryanair CEO or Embraer CEO?
By: Bmused55 - 13th September 2010 at 14:20
Indeed.
Ryanairs talk of ditching co-pilots is just a publicity stunt, nothing more.
By: Grey Area - 12th September 2010 at 22:09
This is the stuff of fantasy, chornedsnorkack. 😎
By: chornedsnorkack - 12th September 2010 at 21:19
No, because he’d never get the load factors he needs per flight to make his airline work.
50 seats versus 189.
Ah yes. Ryanair needs the specific mainliner size range. 122 seats of Embraer 195 are too few as well.
The sole competitor to A and B is T. It would be hilarious to see 300 Tu-204s in Ryanair colours, but I am not sure about Tupolev experience with solo pilot cockpits. Same applies to Irkut MS-21 and Comac C919, when they come. As for Bombardier, Cseries ends at 145 seats, barring new stretches. And Bombardier has no experience with solo pilot cockpits either – all Learjets require two pilots. Cseries does have remote black box:
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/09/02/346880/cseries-aims-to-be-first-with-live-black-box-telemetry.html
but no remote pilot control.
By: Bmused55 - 12th September 2010 at 20:24
If Embraer were to build a solo pilot ERJ145, would O´Leary buy and fly 400?
No, because he’d never get the load factors he needs per flight to make his airline work.
50 seats versus 189.
And no, simply laying on my flights is not the answer.
Range, fuel, consumables, etc are also a factor.
By: Arabella-Cox - 12th September 2010 at 20:12
I come from a 3 crew cockpit environment, albeit old fashioned and relatively expensive, there are merits. Simply put, there is no substitute for a third pair of eyes and ears in the cockpit. One accident which wipes out a planeload of crew and passengers would cost the airline far more than a career-time third crewmember salary, if the presence of the third crewmember would have prevented the accident. However, the self proclaimed experts have determined that 2 crew plus computers is adequate to ensure the safe transportation of millions of human souls around the world, yet when I go to ASN.net…. To reduce the cockpit crew to one crewmember is absolutely absurd and shortsighted in such aircraft.
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September 12, 2010 at 2:52 pm