Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!ncar!dinl!holroyd From: holroyd@dinl.uucp (kevin w. holroyd) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: Unmanned shuttle capability? Message-ID: <788@dinl.mmc.UUCP> Date: 21 Nov 88 17:21:23 GMT References: <350@igor.Rational.COM> <2160@kalliope.rice.edu> <2170@kalliope.rice.edu> Reply-To: holroyd@dinl.UUCP (kevin w. holroyd) Organization: Martin Marietta I&CS, Denver CO. Lines: 35 In article <2170@kalliope.rice.edu> phil@Rice.edu (William LeFebvre) writes: >Well, I was wrong there. Although it is true that it cannot do a totally >machine controlled landing, it can *almost* do one. There are a few >switches in the flight deck that can only be thrown by a humanoid. So it >turns out that modifying it to do an automatic landing would not be very >hard. It also turns out that the pilot does not need to do all that much >(just throw a few switches), but he ends up doing a fair amount of it >himself anyway. I guess the pilots want to feel useful. > > William LeFebvre > Department of Computer Science > Rice University > Anyone who has much experience flying (as pilot) will tell you that very seldom does everything in the aircraft work correctly. I have little faith in any one piece of equipment working at any given time. (Especially if I really need that particular piece of equipment at that time.) That's when the pilot steps in and through training and experience works around the problem. What happens when the fancy microwave landing system on the shuttle goes TANGO UNIFORM (if you don't know what that means, just substitute "out of service" :-) ) and there are no pilots on board? BOOM, scratch one shuttle. I guess the pilots have some use after all. I don't think I would ever sit in a vehicle totally controlled by computer. Let's have someone up on the flight deck who has as much at stake as I do. Kevin W. Holroyd Commercial Pilot Flight Instructor Aerospace Engineer