Airplanes landing alone ?

A couple of years ago a study was published on air safety that indicated that 50% of aircraft accidents occur in the descent and landing phases. And as the landing is the most complex phase of the flight, there are several aids such as the ILS in order to land in automatic mode, but for that are required expensive devices at airports and very ideal conditions, which make them hardly used.

ILS means Instrument Landing System, which is, landing by instruments.

It is estimated that only 1% of commercial flights land with the automatic ILS. And according to Airbus data, only 60% of the airports where their planes land have ILS facilities.

With the improvement of the cameras, of the distance measurement sensors, the miniaturization of the short-range radars and the increase of power of the computers, they are working on a system that is capable of landing an airplane in automatic, without the need of sensors on the landing track.

All sensors would go on the plane (cameras, laser distance meters, GPS position, short range radar, etc …) so that the plane’s processor receives all the information and would be able to place it on the runway without the pilot’s intervention.

That is the theory and some companies are working on it, with the intention of having a prototype available in a few years.

The enormous advantage over the current situation is the savings achieved by not needing equipped airstrips. The whole “system” would go on the plane with what the autonomy is total and the costs would go down a lot in a short time since it would be delivered to thousands of airplanes every year.

Another additional advantage is that over time the prices of these systems will go down and become smaller, so they could be used by other planes of smaller size and cost.

With which in the end everyone wins.

The drawback is that commercial aviation is a security-based territory, and it will be difficult for a system of these characteristics to be easily approved by the authorities. It will take many years and many tests to convince everyone (legislators and aircraft manufacturers) of the absolute security of what they offer.

And when they convince them, it is more than likely that they will first install it on cargo planes for several years to reassure themselves that the system does not fail. With the safety of the passengers, no risk can be taken.

But welcome is all that increases security, even if it takes a few years to put into practice.