DETAILS ANNOUNCED
Secret Automatic Pilot
(Received September 21, 10.15 p.m.) NEW YORK, September 21. The army air force has disclosed details of a hitherto well-guarded military secret, an electronically-controlled automatic pilot which takes over the plane on bombing runs, with greater precision at a high altitude. The electronic device reduces pilot fatigue and makes bombing easier and more effective. Roughly speaking, the autopilot in effect provides an artificial tripod to hold the aircraft on the bull’s-eye when the bombs are released. . An air force spokesman said that the enemy now knew the essential facts of this invention because some planes carrying the new equipment had been lost. A famous Flying Fortress which was al- ' most cut in two by a Messerschmitt when the pilot’s manual control cables connecting to the rudder and elevators wer*e severed, was flown safely home on the autopilot because the control surface motors of the electronic system which are located in the tail escaped damage in the midair crash. '
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 307, 22 September 1943, Page 7
Word Count
163DETAILS ANNOUNCED Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 307, 22 September 1943, Page 7
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