Thursday, April 9, 2015

Planes Without Pilots - Oliver Evison

Oliver Evison



In the article Planes Without Pilots, by John Markoff, Markoff describes bhow modern day technology could enable our society to have planes fly without a pilot. Something no one has dared talk about since the plane was first invented. However, with the recent crashes of planes in the alps and air malaysia flights going down in the South Pacific, researchers like Parimal Kopardekar, (manager of the safe autonomous system operations project at NASA’s Ames Research Center) have been conducting technological research on how planes might be able to fly without a pilot. There will always be a “pilot,” but whether that pilot is human or a robot is a different story. Such a system could take over, if permitted. Already, the Pentagon has deployed automated piloting software in F-16 fighter jets. The Auto Collision Ground Avoidance System reportedly saved a plane and pilot in November during a combat mission against Islamic State forces. The Pentagon has invested heavily in robot aircraft.

If this research does work, it could revolutionize commercial flights and the modern airway vehicle. As of right now, airlines carried 838.4 million passengers on more than 8.5 million flights. Although, airlines are already mostly automated, the idea of having a robotic pilot would not sit well with most of the population.

All in all, Markoff did a good job not taking a side in the people vs. machines argument. He only stated the facts, and he lets the reader make the decision for themselves. He did a great job including outside sources and presenting his evidence in a clear flow.

4 comments:

  1. I enjoyed reading Oliver’s review of the article Planes without Pilots. I enjoyed reading this article because airplanes have always been of interest to me. Also he did three good things that made the article good. First his review was short but factual which made it very easy to understand and read. Second he included expert opinions such as Parimal Kopardekar, (manager of the safe autonomous system operations project at NASA’s Ames Research Center). Third I liked how he addressed both sides of the argument the people who are for it and those who are against it. Although there was good, there was also bad. The first thing was that he had no citation, and only a link. Second he had some grammatical errors which could have been easily resolved. I took away one thing from reading this article. I learnt that the possibilities for aviation are endless, including pilots that can “beam themselves into the cockpit,” which I found fascinating.

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  2. Oliver did a very good job of explaining his article. I liked that he was short and to the point which was helpful because he was not repeating things multiple times. I also liked how Oliver stated the relevance of the robotic pilots to the planes crashes. It was also helpful that he did not take a side and presented facts for both sides, which allowed the reader to pick their own side. Although I did learn something new from this article, his point would have been emphasized more if he had included more statistics and facts about this idea. A quote from the author or a scientist would have helped to validate his facts. I would have also liked to know others opinions on this topic in addition to the sentence when he talked about it. Something that was very interesting to me was when Oliver said that this is something that has not been talked about since the plane was created. This shows how the idea of it is bold and how modern technology is advancing.

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  3. I found Oliver's article, titled "Planes with no Pilots" to be very interesting. The article discuses the possibility of autonomous planes. Oliver did a great job explaining how this type of technology could be used today. Oliver was able to explain his article in a very simple and easy to read fashion. This made understanding the complex technology very simple. Oliver did a good job showing the opposite side of the conversation as well, he made sure that both sides were heard. Although Oliver wrote a great article he forgot to include an MLA style citation. In addition, I think it would have been good to say that with autonomous planes the price of airline tickets would most likely decrease and make flying cheaper. Overall, Oliver did a very good job reviewing a very interesting and important article.

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  4. In enjoyed reading Oliver Evison's review of the article "Planes with no pilots". Oliver did a great job with his review of the article. One thing he did particularly well was The way he organized his review. It was short, but straight to the point. Another thing he did well was choosing and article to review. The article Oliver chose is very interesting and very important. A third thing Oliver did well was using both sides of this unmanned plane argument. There are a couple of things that Oliver could have worked on. The first is he didn't include an MLA style citation. The second is he had some simple grammatical errors. One thing I learned from this article is there have been over 838.4 million people on over 8.5 million flights

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