With everybody enamored of machines that aviate without the interference of humans, “Unmanned Air Vehicles” are currently a hot topic. Like that Airbus with a cabin full of passengers bound for Minneapolis that flew itself so well it just kept going … 150 miles beyond Minneapolis. See, I just can’t buy that story about two guys in the pointy end so superglued to their laptops they forgot where they were, and I suspect, in a secret cost-cutting measure, the airlines are flying these things by remote control. Now the U.S. military’s in love with the Predator, an exotic, robotic drone with precision-guided bombs that takes off and lands itself on carriers. But what does this mean for all those gorgeous Navy and Air Force fighter jocks? Say it isn’t so.
Fellow pilots, are we doomed to go the way of white-gloved lady elevator operators and those humans who used to answer telephones?
