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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1684.PDF
374 FLIGHT OCTOBER 2ND, Automatic PilotingT HE past week has seen unusual activity on the part of " George " and his progeny, and there has been a rather ungracious suggestion of sour grapes in the demi-official statement that we could have made an Atlantic flight, such as has just been completed by the American Skymaster, ten years ago. If a flight by a four-engined airliner made entirely without the aid of a human pilot at the controls happens to have more immediate appeal to the news sleuths of our daily Press than does a most important airborne manoeuvre, that is unfortunate for the hard-working Service P.R.O.S. The situation is not, however, improved by belittling the very creditable achievement of our American colleagues. Some people have said "so what? " to the American " pilotless " crossing. "Without aid at this end it would not have been possible, and who is going to sit on a tar- get and home fleets of pilotless bombers? " This is not, of course, the intention at all. The flight represents a technical achievement, and is part of a development pro- gramme. Whether possible years ago or not, no one has hitherto been enterprising enough to couple up all the services as well as the primary controls of an air- craft so that it can be taken off, flown on course and, what is more important, landed safely, without the assistance of a human pilot. So far as the principle of the Skymaster's autopilot is concerned, it is, in our opinion, outmoded. We do not in this country favour radio beams and corridor control CONTENTS Outlook - - - - Exercise Longstop - E.S.P. in the Air - Back on Monday ------ Here and There - - - - - - ^terim Transports - - - - - Prestwick Pioneer - Civil Aviation News - - - Correspondence- ----- Service Aviation - Forthcoming Events, pags 398 1 373 375 379 380 383 385 389 393 398 399 with all their weaknesses. Instead we have, developed a system of area control with the aid of pure radayl Should the need arise, we could undoubtedly equip ah aircraft to fly without a pilot, and, what is more impor- tant, control it entirely from base. At present the more urgent need seems to be for a really efficient automatic pilot which will supplement the human pilots and relieve them of most of their responsibilities on long flights and on approaches to land in bad weather. In this field we had tended to fail behind America during the war, but in the last year or two we have made up the lee- way, and in the instance of the new and advanced electric autopilot demonstrated at Radlett last week, we can justifiably claim to have taken a lead. '• Finjhl SCENES FROM NETHERWON AND BRIZE NORTON ; (Top left) A spore Merlin is delivered at the newly'~eltaWsimri''Moblh Staging Post. (Top right) Sikorsky R-6 helicopters land staff officers in Exercise Longstop I. (Bottom left) Lord Tedder, Chief of Air Staff, to Chief Marshal Sir Ralph Cochrane, A.O.C. in C. Transport Command, and A. V-M. A. L. Fiddament, who commanded the Transport Command Force, watch the proceedings. (Bottoii right) An Avro York taxi is away after being unloaded.
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