Autonomy in Aviation

On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 took off from New York City’s LaGuardia airport bound for Charlotte, North Carolina. What should have been a routine flight, flown by highly experienced crewmembers took a shocking turn when it struck multiple Canadian geese and lost thrust in both engines. While everyone is familiar with the pilot’s decision to land on the Hudson River, most have not analyzed it from the perspective of automation and how it can inform a discussion about the future role of human beings versus automation or artificial intelligence in future aviation operations.

For this assignment, make sure to review the module resources related to this assignment and answer the following questions in the discussion:

1. What level of automation was present in the Airbus A320-214 that the crew was flying that day?

2. Could a fully autonomous piloting system have landed safely at an airport? 

· Why or why not?

3. What assets if any, does a human being in the loop bring to the situation that an autonomous system does not?

4. What does this make you think about the future of UAS integrating into the National Airspace System and the appropriate levels of automation that should be incorporated into their design?

· Provide a short paper submission of at least 400 words total.

· Use reference citations in APA format.

· Add a Reference section to the end of the paper.