Pilots distracted by laptops? Not in cockpits of the future.
Automated flight controls under research may be able to sense
how alert pilots are. It’s one way science could help prevent
mistakes like the one made by the Northwest pilots who overflew
Minneapolis by 150 miles. As two Northwest pilots ponder their
futures – minus their pilot licenses – researchers are
developing new approaches for keeping pilots on their toes on
long flights.Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the
Monitor It’s part of a larger effort to improve air safety over
the next decade or two with the US Federal Aviation
Administration’s “NextGen” air-traffic control system. NextGen
draws on a range of high-tech approaches to give pilots more
accurate information, about terrain and weather conditions, for
instance. More aircraft flight-control systems will be
automated. And air traffic controllers will receive more
frequent and precise data, allowing them to pack more airliners
along routes. “There are lots of pieces to the puzzle, b