There has been some talk of remote piloting (like drones,) but personally, I want whoever is flying the plane to have some skin in the game. Unmanned - fully autopilot aircraft are certainly possible and I sure Boeing probably has a Skunkworks looking into it, but I’ve seen enough source code over the years that I would have a hard time trusting an autonomous airplane unless they had escape pods. Autonomous airplanes seen to be solving a problem that doesn’t seem critical to solve – given the statistically exceptional safety record of commercial air travel. Pilot error is a very rare cause of airliner crashes.

I think electric airplanes powered by Mr. Fusion mini nuclear reactors would be the future I’d like to see!