Designing the future of flight: A socio-technical framework for single-pilot operations in commercial aviation

The transition to Single-Pilot Operations (SPO) represents a transformative evolution in commercial aviation, driven by advances in automation, human–autonomy teaming, and socio-economic imperatives. This study presents a comprehensive literature-informed investigation into SPO's technical, human, organizational, and societal dimensions, supported by a robust bibliometric analysis of over two decades of research. Through a multi-thematic review and framework development, the manuscript identifies eight critical dimensions shaping SPO implementation: human factors and cognitive workload, automation and human–autonomy teaming, the concept of operations and task redistribution, remote support and ground integration, safety and certification, interface and cockpit design, economic feasibility, and public perception. We also propose a new integrated socio-technical framework highlighting the interplay between these domains and the need for trust calibration, adaptive automation, and transparent certification processes. The framework emphasises stakeholder-centric design, highlighting the importance of aligning technological capability with human limitations, operational context, and societal expectations. The limitations of current SPO research, including gaps in real-world validation, interdisciplinary integration, and long-term public trust studies, are discussed. This work provides a roadmap for future research and a strategic orientation for regulators, airlines, and system designers seeking to deploy safe and publicly accepted SPOs. • Comprehensive SPO corpus (1999–2025), deduplicated across IEEE, Scopus, and WoS. • Transparent, reproducible pipeline (search .→ inclusion/exclusion → deduplication → TF-IDF/SVD → K-Means), with all outputs provided. • Evidence-linked SPO framework: a four-state operational model with quantitative triggers and validation KPIs. • Three integrated implementation pillars: Onboard Techniques, Ground Operations Enablement, Human-Factors Integration connected via a theme pillar mapping. • Practice anchoring through regulatory and operational cases, illustrating how the framework is applied and verified.