In Russia, it is planned to replace the co-pilot with a computer in cargo and passenger aircraft in order to save money.
The message of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade on the public procurement portal indicates that the government seeks to replace the co-pilot with a virtual one and thus reduce the cost of operating aircraft.
A competition has been announced for the development of such technology until the end of 2024. Experts remind that international flight safety requirements suggest that there should always be at least two people in the cockpit.
The new technology should replace the co-pilot in aircraft with a virtual one. The issue price is 2.9 billion rubles.
Consequently, in Russia in the 2030s, commercial aircraft will be able to be operated by one crew member.
This, on the one hand, will significantly reduce the cost of operating aircraft, and on the other hand, it will require measures that exclude a significant increase in the load on a single pilot, the procurement materials say.
In order to “reduce the burden on the pilot of the aircraft”, the ministry proposes to modernize the information and control field of the cockpit, develop the technical appearance of the second virtual pilot and integrate the aircraft with this technology into the air traffic control system.
Russian Vedomosti noted that the materials of the purchase did not indicate the model of the aircraft, in which it is planned to use the virtual co-pilot technology. The commercial aircraft category includes both cargo and passenger aircraft.
International flight safety rules stipulate that there must be at least two people in the cockpit, said Vladislav Rykov, head of aviation and asset financing at BGP Litigation. To introduce a virtual co-pilot, he says, Russian aviation regulations and other documents need to be changed.
Recall that in the near future air traffic in Russia may completely stop – there the leading airlines already have to dismantle undamaged aircraft into parts for the repair of Airbus and Boeing ships.
Due to sanctions in Russia, there is no longer access to certified maintenance and spare parts, and some of the aircraft are generally stuck abroad. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian aviation industry lives on loan.
The German edition of Welt reports that “Russia’s problem can be summed up in one figure of 70% – this is the share of Airbus and Boeing, which have a fleet of about 880 aircraft of Russian airlines – minus the smallest regional aircraft still Soviet-made.”
According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, 95% of passengers in Russia are transported by foreign-made aircraft, and according to a study by CH-Aviation, 15% of the Russian air fleet is hovering outside the country. These are the aircraft that, for example, were in service abroad before the start of a full-scale war, or they were simply confiscated after February 24th.
Most of the fleet that Russian airlines have access to has no official parts and no certified service due to sanctions. That is, the Russian aviation industry, already notorious for its breakdowns and accidents, is likely to become even more dangerous.
Source: Racurs
