Pilotless planes are in the near future and who else is terrified?

For some, flying can be a scary experience.

From motion sickness, to ear popping during take-off; many people fret during a plane ride… so, what about pilotless planes?

According to Reuters, the idea will come to life in the near future – and we don't mean five to ten years, we're talking about in a few months time.

Speaking ahead of the Paris Air Show, Boeing's vice president of product development, Mike Sinnett, said that "the basic building blocks of the technology clearly are available".

The VP, who is a pilot himself, explained that he hopes to "fly on an airplane next year with some artificial intelligence that makes decisions that pilots would make".

However, while the technology to do so is there, meeting safety standards is another matter.

"I have no idea how we're going to do that," Mike said. "But we're studying it right now and we're developing those algorithms." 

He added that if a plane can't land safely, "we can't go there".

While we have the tech stuff sorted, and looking into safety procedures is all well and good, how many of us would actually want to fly on a pilotless plane?

"It appears that people are more comfortable with a pilot directly at the controls, and on the plane," an aeronautics expert, Stephen Rice, wrote in 2014.

Eh, yeah… obviously.