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Dear Captain Lim,
I have never felt comfortable about riding in an airplane controlled by computers, because my personal experience of a computer is something which stalls and crashes several times per day, whose software is universally affected by bugs which have to be slowly ferreted out by making version after version, and they are subject to viruses and need constant updating with security patches.
Are airplane computers made in a different world, where there are no bugs and no computer crashes? This question would also apply to the computers in air traffic control centers.
Frank
Hi Frank,
I hope you are not under the misconception that computers were built to "totally" (at least for the moment) control the plane even though one often hears that modern jetliners rely a lot on them. It is a reality of life that in order to progress, we need computers. They are generally fast, reliable and extremely useful. The invention of computers has greatly benefited society ? be it in flying or their use in controlling air traffic. Computers are computers! They do have glitches and crash once in a while, but the problems are always rectified before the plane gets airborne. Even when they do fail in the air, the pilot takes over from the computers in flight (which means that they have to work that much harder!)
Compared to the days when there were no computers on planes, the computerized avionics components found on most commercial aircraft to assist pilots to navigate, plan flights and control the flights have made flying so much safer today.
Yes, it is also the general feeling of the man in the street that he is unwilling to rely on computers because they aren't ?as smart as real people? Anyone will admit that machine can have faster reflexes, senses and greater precision than any human but very few will accept the fact that a machine's judgment can be as good as those of a human.
Just remember, computers that can do anything potentially dangerous, do it under human supervision. For instance, if I were flying on a Boeing 777 to Frankfurt on a day when most airports are fogged up, I have to rely on the computers to bring me down or else the passengers will end up in another destination. The auto landing by computers will take me down to 20 feet above ground level in 100 meters visibility. It is almost humanly impossible for a pilot to manually fly the plane to that kind of precision safely.
Aha, should the computers fail at anytime, it is the pilot who intervenes and take over to abort the landing! (Not any pilots are certified to conduct an auto landing with computers. Only those specially trained and know how and when to recognize an emergency are authorized to do so)
Well, there is more to come where computers and aviation are concerned. Very soon in the future, airplanes will be connected by radio and satellite link to a global information system that will provide them with all the in flight information so that they can fly independently. Yes, computers may take over control of flying completely!
Currently, planes are capable of taking off and landing automatically (although regulations prohibit this at the moment). So, it is not too farfetched to think about such pilotless planes one day!
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Profession 
