Removing the pilot may change the structure of transport aircraft.
Cargo airplanes are traditionally derived from two sources: passenger aircraft designs and military airlifters. The advances in drone flying, however, suggest an interesting possibility: simplified fixed-wing cargo airplanes without pressurization. Operating from secondary airports, these specialized cargo airframes could lower the cost of air freight and create a new class of large airplane.
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Episode Transcript:
This is a paperclip. There’s nothing unusual about this piece of wire, but let me use it to illustrate a point. If I bend it back and forth, eventually it breaks. This is colloquially called “metal fatigue” and it’s an important part of engineering in everything from bridges to aircraft fuselages.
In the latter, it’s really important—and we know from tragic experience that the pressurization and depressurization cycles will fatigue airframes and are often the limiting factor in airframe life. This is true for cargo aircraft as well as passenger planes, and the number of cycles is especially important when older passenger airplanes are converted into cargo aircraft.
But what if we simply didn’t use pressurized airplanes?
In the days of the DC-3, this was how air transport operated: low and slow and, importantly, in the weather. This meant turbulence, risk and frequent flight delays and rerouting around storms.
Now, for cargo aircraft, most freight doesn’t care—but the two human beings up front certainly do, and cargo flight planning has to take this into account.
But what if autonomously piloted aircraft—large drones—simply do away with pressurization?
This could have several benefits: simpler, lighter airframes, no complex pressurization systems to service, no thrust loss from engine bleed air requirements and importantly, no fatigue from pressurization cycles. These airplanes could essentially be a lightweight cargo container with wings, a little like the Shorts Skyvan or this innovative but long forgotten aircraft, the XC-120 Pack Plane.
Removing the pilot would greatly simplify multiple aircraft systems and for dedicated cargo use, secondary airports could support the traffic, with no gates and a much less crowded ramp to negotiate. This would lower costs, but also potentially change the cargo aircraft from variants of conversions of passenger airplanes, or expensive multipurpose military style airlifters, to simple, low-cost flying boxcars.
Small package delivery by VTOL drones is already a thing and the military are using autonomous helicopters, but scheduled freight services by air is a major industry in the Amazon era and I think it’s ripe for disruption, too.
The pilots? Well, they may have a different opinion, as might the FAA. But this kind of automation is coming, and drone flying is easier to achieve than autonomous road driving, so get ready. It’s coming.
