Single Pilot Operations - Who Should Do What? Allocating Aviation Tasks to the Performing Cooperators

Single Pilot Operation (SPO) is increasingly discussed amongst pilots, airlines, aircraft manufacturers, authorities, and other committees. In EASA’s safety domain “the feasibility of the implementation of SPO in the EU regulatory framework by 2030” is to be assessed. Opinions on SPO vary widely, especially when the focus is on safety. Some see flight safety at risk, while others see a possible increase in flight safety, particularly through the simultaneous use of artificial intelligence or highly developed automation. The SPO concepts used as a basis for forming individual opinions differ a lot and are therefore often not comparable. Regardless of this, it is very likely that SPO will start to get into operation and might become one of the standards in commercial aviation in the future, e.g., starting for cargo flights. The way of implementation depends on various factors. The most important should be safety. In order to approach a possible common basis for decision-making, the DLR project NICo developed a safety-centered SPO concept and a suitable allocation of tasks to the different actors in an SPO scenario in multiple iterative processes. The concept and task allocation as well as the evaluation by 40 airline pilots are presented here.