Air Force Studies Autonomous Cargo Jets - AVweb

We are so good at avoiding the elephant in the room : “Investigators determined that the S-76 was properly equipped” and all blame on the pilot. I don’t buy that. I blame the FAA and its certification policies. It’s very easy these days to get 3D terrain in the cockpit… for experimentals. Shouldn’t cost more than a few AMUs imho, in any case insignificant for anything turbine driven. But the FAA keeps enforcing Flintstone standards and self-serving hefty requirements that make progress economically insane. There is a dim light these last few years as approvals are finally forthcoming but nothing near where we ought to be. The only measure should be : “proven more reliable than what is currently installed”, a very very low bar considering the equipment installed in much of the GA and yes even airline fleets. My drone is better equipped than that S76 or a 10 yr old Gulfstream, let alone a 1960’s Bonanza. Every year there is still a vacuum pump driving a critical function on any N-reg aicraft, the head of the FAA should be fired for incompetence.