Indian and American consumer perceptions of cockpit configuration policy

Prior studies have examined the passenger's trust in a human operated system versus an autonomous autopilot operated system. The results indicated that passengers had a more negative attitude toward the autopilot systems. The current study expands on this by examining perceptions of different cockpit configurations, and exploring cultural differences between Indian and American individuals. Participants from both India and the United States were asked to imagine a) that they were on a commercial flight, b) that they were sending a package on a cargo flight, or c) that they were on a corporate flight. In addition they were told that the aircraft was piloted by: a) two pilots in the cockpit, b) one pilot in the cockpit and one pilot located in a ground facility using remote controls, or c) two pilots in a ground facility using the remote controls. The results demonstrated that participants were strongly against having two pilots on the ground controlling the aircraft with remote controls, although most accepted this if the pilots were remote controlling cargo flights. In addition, American participants had more extreme views than the Indian participants, except with the cargo situation.