Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Journal of Space Safety Engineering, 2025 (ESCI, Scopus)
This study aims to evaluate the safety effects of autonomous flight technologies, which are increasingly gaining importance in the aviation sector, using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method. While automation has the potential to reduce pilot workload and increase safety, its negative effects on human factors are emphasized in the literature. In this context, the study comparatively analyzes six different automation levels (from manual flight to autonomous systems) within the framework of five basic criteria (safety contribution, potential to reduce human error, technical maturity, implementation cost and compliance with regulations). In the study, the relative priorities of the alternatives were calculated using pairwise comparison matrices created by the evaluations of 22 different experts, in line with the criteria determined by a group of 5 experts, and the automation levels were ranked within the scope of this multi-criteria structure. With the applied AHP method, the most appropriate automation level was determined and which criteria were more effective in the decision process was revealed. As a result of the final evaluation, autonomous systems ranked first with a total priority value of 30,9%, especially due to their high contribution to safety and their potential to reduce human error. It was followed by full automation (20,7%) and high automation (15,5%). No automation alternative ranked fourth (11,6%) and partial automation ranked fifth (11,1%). The tastk assist (10%) were at the bottom of the ranking with lower score. The evaluation criteria were determined as contribution to safety (47,3%), potential to reduce human error (25,4%), technical maturity (12,8%), compliance with regulations (9,1%) and implementation cost (5,4%). The results provide a valuable roadmap for decision-makers, policy-makers and industry professionals in terms of strategic technology planning, investment prioritization and legislative adaptations. In this context, the successful management of safety-focused digital transformation processes in aviation requires not only technological competence but also a holistic approach to strategic, economic and regulatory compliance.