Would you get on a plane that didn’t have a human pilot in the cockpit? Half of air travelers surveyed in 2017 said they would not, even if the ticket was cheaper. Modern pilots do such a good job that almost any air accident is big news, such as the Southwest engine disintegration on April 17, 2018.
2017 was a year of making hay while the sun shone for our legacy airline group. More passengers paid more money than they did in 2016, giving airlines nice, juicy profits.
On April 29, 1988, Boeing test pilots James C. Loesch and Kenneth Higgins took the new Boeing 747-400 for its first flight from Paine Field, landing at Boeing Field 2 hours 29 minutes later.