Progressing Toward Airliners' Reduced-Crew Operations: A Systematic Literature Review

Objective: The present article undertakes a systematic review of the current state of science for Single-Pilot Operations (SPO) and Reduced-Crew Operations (RCO) in commercial aviation. Background: SPO/RCO have been investigated with different methods from various disciplines and different organizations to make research progress. The results of federal agencies', universities', and EU-projects' research activities have not been brought together for synthesis yet. Method: We systematically searched for SPO and RCO as independent and fixed search terms retrieving altogether 75 publications on the topic. Exclusion criteria were general and military aviation. Results: Establishing an appropriate function allocation to cope with high workload and off-nominal situations could be achieved by applying a variety of methods and the consideration of advanced automation systems. Their application is required to investigate pilot incapacitation and communication issues further. Data-link and certification issues were acknowledged in principle and have not been solved yet. Conclusion: In sum, experimental studies and modeling techniques of system ergonomics have addressed operational issues very well. Pilot health monitoring systems are less well elaborated than system protection. Future research needs to integrate different research findings and automation technologies. This is necessary to make RCO to a viable and attractive option for commercial development in aviation.