Today's phase is automation. All working machines are learning to do themselves. A pilotless plane will arrive soon after a driverless car. At the Paris Air Show this year, European aircraft manufacturer Airbus said it was trying to persuade controllers of air traffic for un-piloted aircraft.

Today, the number of people traveling around the world is increasing steadily. For this, 8 lakh pilots will be required in the next 20 years. However, the availability of new pilots is not meeting this need. American airline company Boeing says the shortage of pilots is going to be the biggest challenge for the aviation industry.

New technology can help overcome this challenge. The influx of aircraft that can fly without a pilot is welcome, but there are major challenges along the way. There are three main among these.

If any new thing comes, then there is some benefit and some harm. When the cars were invented, it shocked the railway workers. There was a decrease in the number of passengers on trains. Earlier, when the railway was invented, it more or less eliminated the transport from canals and rivers. The result was that some people got new jobs. At the same time, some people working in the old profession lost their jobs.

Nicholas Carr has said this in his book 'The Glass Cage' very well. Nicholas wrote that "there is no such economic rule that everyone will benefit from the new technology".

Non-pilot aircraft are a good example of this. This technology will bring revolution in air travel. However, its value will be achieved by losing jobs. Many pilots will lose their jobs. The airline industry employs tens of thousands of people. Who take billions of travelers to their destination. Handing over this work to machines will end the job of those who do it. Then they have to learn new skills to make a living.

This is where politics starts happening. There are strong unions of pilots of airlines. Those who negotiate. Airline companies get their conditions under pressure.

Such as the Airline Pilots Association ie Alpa. It has 63 thousand members worldwide. In the 1960s there were three crew members in the cockpit of the aircraft. There were two pilots and a flight engineer. But, with the advancement of technology, there was no need for a flight engineer. But the Pilot Association opposed it. Due to which flight engineers were given a second job. We will see similar bargains when non-pilot aircraft are launched.

The fight with these pilots will also include those who train the pilots. Similarly, they will be universities, colleges and flight schools, which produce pilots. Because pilotless technology will also threaten their jobs.

Planes are not cheap. A Boeing 737-like aircraft comes for around $ 100 million. The larger Boeing 777 aircraft costs about $ 300 million. In 2011, American Airlines spent $ 30 billion in repairs to its fleet of aircraft. The Indian airline IndiGo also spent huge amounts in repairing its aircraft. To recover this cost, the companies have to increase the flight of the aircraft. This increases the risk of accidents.

Airline companies provide insurance to avoid this damage. Only how much can be paid by airlines, insurance premiums can be estimated. However, insurance companies hide their rates to compete with competitors. But, the airline industry has to spend billions of rupees every year for this. It also affects their profits.

The question arises that if the aircraft without pilot comes, how much will it affect the insurance? It should be that the premium of insurance is reduced. Because the machines will fly the aircraft better. This will reduce the risk of accidents. Although in reality the insurance will be less, this cannot be said right now.

Today's aircraft fly with the help of niche technology. Due to which the possibility of accidents decreases. These aircraft are flown with the help of thousands of codes. But, a new kind of danger arises from them. In 2015, Boeing's Dreamliner had a software glitch that engineers could not catch. Due to this, there was a danger of fire in him. The Airbus 350 has also been caught recently. This was also due to lack of software.

Today, the danger of hacking the codes of planes stands in front. It was only in 2008 that governments feared that Boeing's Dreamliner could be hacked from a computer. Then the command the pilot gives will not be considered an aircraft.

This risk will increase further with aircraft without pilots. If the risk increases, the insurance of the planes will also increase.

The pilots get a thick salary. Salaries for pilots with five-year experience start at $ 1.5 lakh. The salary of senior pilots can be up to $ 2.5 lakh. Now the airline industry is cutting its expenses. In such a situation, this thick amount of money going into the salaries of pilots can be saved from non-pilot planes.

Swiss bank UBS estimates that by removing humans from the cockpit, about $ 35 billion in expenses can be saved each year. This will reduce the expenses of the airline industry. That is why Airbus and Boeing companies are excited about pilotless aircraft.

However, being automatic does not mean that the need of humans will be eliminated in flying the aircraft. Yes, their number will be less. Even if there is a pilot in the aircraft for emergency, the expenses of the airline companies will be reduced by about $ 20 billion.

However, aircraft manufacturers are apprehensive in this. They say that if a pilot would be in an aircraft and monitor from the ground, how many planes would he be able to monitor simultaneously? And if we had to keep another pilot, it would cost the airlines about $ 12 billion.

This means that the profits of the airlines will be reduced. Overall, the aircraft companies flying without the pilot will have to pay more or less the same amount. Yes, if a pilot on the ground can keep an eye on many aircraft, then the cost of the airlines will be less. But, there will also be risk. Because the question will be that if an aircraft is in trouble, will the pilot sitting in the ground be able to monitor other planes while helping him?

Till the time humans do not get this quality, the dream of planes without pilots will remain incomplete.

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