Pilotless Airplanes

There is a story in the "Ask a Pilot" column on Salon.com about air travel and the reality of pilotless planes. The author, a professed pilot, claims that air travel requires the input of real pilots in the plane at all times. Although I'm not a pilot, I disagree with the author for a few reasons. First it's impossible to make wild predictions about the world 20 years hence. It's also unrealistic to assume that computers aren't up to the task in some way. The whole article seems to be an apologetic justification for the author's own self professed rustiness.

The claim that something isn't possible in 20 years is foolish. The amount of technological progress to be made over two decades is baffling. It's impossible to predict the advances that could be made in that time. Much of the technology already exists. It would have to be strung together effectively and managed by a pretty significant computer brain, but I think it's a real possibility.
Flying aircraft seems to be the perfect job for a computer. Take-off, fly toward a destination, then land. I don't see what makes that job require any more ingenuity than a railroad or an assembly line. All sorts of inputs could be used. GPS for location, any number of systems for runway identification and taxiing, multiple altimeters for various altitude data, and input from traffic controlling computers for routing information. It's not impossible, I think it's the perfect place for a computer.

Pilot error accounts for up to a third of airline crashes, so I would welcome a competent computer. They don't fly the plane drunk, they don't mistake the ground for the sky, and they couldn't be hijacked like a normal pilot. I for one welcome our coming robo-pilot overlords.