Does Landmark Unmanned Flight Spell Doom for Test Pilots?

U.S. Navy Comdr. Bill Reuter, chief test pilot of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23, releases a load of inert bombs while in a supersonic dive in an F/A-18E Super Hornet during a test flight at Maryland’s Patuxent River Naval Air Station.

Last month an experimental aircraft called the X-43A hit a velocity of 5,000 miles (8,045 kilometers) an hour – more than seven times the speed of sound. It was the first time an oxygen-powered “scramjet” flew freely. But one thing was missing during the aeronautical milestone: the pilot.

The X-43A’s pilotless flight signaled a growing trend in modern aviation: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Economics, pilot error, and concern for human safety are all motivations to replace human test pilots with computers.

Dana Purifoy is a top NASA test pilot for the agency’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Purifoy flew the B-52B launch aircraft that carried the X-43A and its Pegasus booster rocket to a launch destination over the Pacific Ocean.