Re: Nice Myth
the additional design cost to design in a pilot's seat is small, and the additional operating cost for the human pilot becomes negligible.
I think we will find that similar rules apply to driverless cars - hence why all the lobbying with the aim to effectively get governments to mandate their usage. However, suspect with cars the approach of using an existing approved vehicle body helps to keep costs in check - hence perhaps an approach that reuses existing airframes and replacing human pilot with autopilot will also reduce the upfront costs.
Eventually, except in a few rare cases, it will be cheaper to build a land-based network.
I suspect this is where niche players such as Zipline ( www.flyzipline.com ) come in. The delivery of medical supplies and other high-value and time urgent, small packages needed by disperse or remote communities is an obvious market, where a drone service offers benefits over using a regular piloted air bus. The question as far as I can see is: just what is a small package (weight/size).
Zipline works by the drone (airplane) being based at a hub and delivering packages to predefined drop points - the package is parachuted in, the drone doesn't land. What isn't clear is how Zipline drones are programmed: do they use a preflown flight path or are they more intelligent and so only need destination co-ordinates, my suspicion is a preflown flight path so logic only needed to process GPS, altitude and match to course.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
