Airbus has developed technology to fly passenger jets with no pilots, and is ready to deploy it today, according to one of its top executives.
But the company knows that autonomous commercial flight remains a distant prospect because of barriers which are human, rather than technical.
Christian Scherer, Airbus’s chief commercial officer, told The Associated Press (AP) about the autonomous technology at the Paris Air Show on Monday.
He said: “This is not a matter of technology — it’s a matter of interaction with the regulators, the perception in the traveling public.”
“When can we introduce it in large commercial aircraft? That is a matter we are discussing with regulators and customers, but technology-wise, we don’t see a hurdle.”
Scherer did not elaborate on the technology or how it might work.
A new survey of 22,000 people conducted by US autonomous software firm Ansys released on Monday showed that 70% of passengers would be willing to fly in fully autonomous aircraft.
No commercial airline offers autonomous commercial flights at the moment, and national regulators are yet to draw up rules for how they should be monitored and operated.