There’s a well-worn adage among airline pilots that goes along the lines of:
“the reason airlines have two pilots is for one to make a mistake and the other to catch you making it”.
Like many cliches, it bears a little truth. In the early days of flight, there were five crew members: the captain, the co-pilot, the navigator, the flight engineer and a radio operator. These days, most jet aircraft are designed for two pilots, with one pilot flying and the other monitoring the safety systems. This division of labour has been designed into the flight decks of jet aircraft for so long, it has become the default – until the emergence of the personal jet.
At the turn of the century, very light jets (VLJ) began to pepper the business jet market. Several new designs were produced, such as the Embraer Phenom 100, the Cessna Citation Mustang and the Eclipse 500.
The demand for VLJs grew to compete with the soul-sucking experience of flying on domestic airlines. Lower operating costs, the ability to land on shorter runways and the growth of single-pilot IFR operations have driven the growth for what is now named the personal jet. A flurry of single-engine jets – the Piper Altaire, the Diamond D-Jet and the Eclipse 400 – entered the market and failed. Currently, the Cirrus Vision Jet is the only certified single-engine jet on the market.
Personal jets are now developed with the single pilot IFR operator in mind, altering the landscape ofdeck has undergone a radical transformation. Removing the co-pilot has also removed a formerly vital monitoring system; a second pair of human eyes.
