AUTOMATIC AIR PILOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20779, 23 January 1931, Page 14

AUTOMATIC AIR PILOT.

SUCCESS IN AMERICA. THROUGH FOG AND DARKNESS. [from Ot'll OWN con RESPONDENT.] NEW YORK, Dec. 06. Tho automatic pilot will operato aeroplanes of tho New York-Florida air mailpassenger service about to bo instituted. It is a development of tho gyroscope, or, in this case, two gyroscopes, one controlling the aeroplane longitudinally, tho other laterally. l?oth gyroscopes are connected to tho controls, and their actions arc coordinated mechanically.

Tlio device proved its worth in the Army air manoeuvres in California, where "Robot" (lew a bombing machine hundreds of miles, enabling tho mere human pilot to devote his whole attention to observation work, bombing and other duties, for which another man would have been needed. Fog and darkness have no terrors for tho gyroscopic pilot, thereby removing one of (he Great hazards of flying. Dr. Sperrv, inventor of the Spcrrv artificial horizon to guide ri pilot through fog or darkness, also inventor of the automatic, snid, before lie died, (lint lie had hopes the apparatus could be developed to (lie point of landing or taking off a plane. A drawback, in the of some operators who have considered the newpilot, has been i(s weight— 651b. to 7511). —which means that one less passenger can bo carried. The New York-Florida operators, however, decided that the weight objection was of liltle importance, in view of the increased safety factor and the lessening of strain on the human pilots. ______