Pilotless Part 135 Caravan Cargo Operator?

[touch-n-go]

I guess the future is here....at least according to these guys...

Xwing Aims To Usher In The Era Of Autonomous Flight Sooner By Robotizing Small, Old Cargo Planes

The San Francisco-based startup claims to have pulled off the first fully autonomous flight of a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, a small workhorse cargo plane, and it’s hoping to win approval from the FAA to launch commercial cargo deliveries with unmanned Grand Caravans over unpopulated areas in 2022.

www.forbes.com

Xwing Debuts Worlds First Fully Autonomous Air Cargo Flight

Xwing announced today that it has successfully executed numerous passenger-carrying autonomous take-off to landing flights in a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. This marks the first time a company has performed a fully autonomous flight for an aircraft of this category. After operating in stealth for...

www.webwire.com

 

[Skåning]

Not gonna work, and the article states why

Pilots of small cargo planes carry out a host of jobs apart from flying, including supervising loading, checking weights and balances, and going through preflight checks that include a final walkaround to make sure cargo carts or a fuel truck haven’t damaged the plane. If the pilot is gone, additional workers or more training for existing ones may be required to carry out those tasks, Blair points out.

“Just because you don’t have a pilot, there is a whole infrastructure that doesn’t go away,” he says.

The reliability of the technology will be a key question in an industry with thin margins. “If anything winks it can’t go,” Blair says, “and you need to be reliable in this business or you can’t make a nickel.”

Seems like software guys who want to reinvent the wheel and burn through a crap-load of investor funding.

 

[FloridaLarry]

...Seems like software guys who want to reinvent the wheel and burn through a crap-load of investor funding.

Agree! But where would we be of no one ever had blue-sky ideas? We do need innovators, but not everyone who tries to innovate will succeed.

I'm not planning on sending these guys a check.

 

[CaptainYoda]

This won't be financially viable until the next "Pilot Shortage"
(AKA shortage of pilots willing to work for free or near minimum wage to gain experience)

So bare minimum, 5-7 years

 

[KLB]

Not gonna work, and the article states why



Seems like software guys who want to reinvent the wheel and burn through a crap-load of investor funding.

Most 135 cargo operators are out there buying brand new birds either. IFL is still flying Convairs. Ameriflight had the highest time Beech 99 in the world...back in 2007. I'm sure they have the highest time Beech 99's in the world by now. The 135 cargo operators are mostly filled with metros, 1900's, saabs, Brasilias, caravans, and a host of over old piston planes. No one buys new planes for cargo outside of FedEx.

 

[CFI A&P]

And people think they’ll see the human operator removed from high speed three dimensional transportation.

 

[srn121]

I saw a company hiring in the Bay Area awhile back for 208s and I believe it was these guys. The pay seemed great and if someone wants to take their money I'm not too worried that they'll be putting any pilots out of jobs soon.

 

[Bamaaviator]

Seems like every 2-3 months we have this discussion on pilotless airplanes. It will never happen. Is that a bold statement? Yea, I guess you can say that. But companies, especially airlines, can’t afford anything right now due to COVID. What makes you think they will want to transition to fully autonomous airplanes? Every software bug HAS to be worked out of it or it’s a no-go. Until that is accomplished, this will remain a pipe dream. Seems every article that is written on this subject is always by some tech wizard.

 

[Richman]

Not gonna work, and the article states why



Seems like software guys who want to reinvent the wheel and burn through a crap-load of investor funding.

The model seems to be to hype it up, get the funding, buy yourself that snazzy car and techie pad in SFO, and then either let it go bankrupt, sell it off, or IPO it and cash out.

I don't think any actual innovation gets into that mix, since no one bothers to do any fact checking.

 

[CaptainYoda]

I'm curious what the "Killer App" is going to be?
Unmanned banner planes? Cargo planes? Border Patrol?

I can see small UAV's moving packages, food, medical supplies, documents, and things like that because they replace multiple moving parts.
(vans and drivers eliminated, distribution centers are simplified)

An unmanned Caravan only replaces the pilot, and there will likely need to be some sort of a ground controller with some sort of qualification.
High utilization (with one controller managing 10-20 UAV's) would be required to justify the investment.

But it will happen.

Companies want it, other companies (with more credibility than the one in the article) are diligently working on it.

 

[mightynimbus]

" and he came to believe great improvements could be made in how people get around if the pilot were removed from the equation. "

and seen explaining this to a coworker

 

[gliderboy]

No pilot! Who's gonna load and unload the cargo?

 

[jtrain609]

 

[Itchy]

Would love to see how it handles a compressor turbine failure over BFE.