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AUTOMATIC FLYING

PLANE WITH HOMING PILOT. A de HaVilland Dragon aeroplane, which has been equipped at Croydon to map unsurveyed parts of Australia, possesses a wireless directionfinder and an automatic pilot. The interesting thing is that the two devices are linked together so that the aeroplane can be set to follow of its own accord a predetermined route, with the precision required for aerial photography, states “The Times.” This is a new development in aircraft control. In the de Havilland Queen Bee we already have an aero plane controlled from the ground by radio, but apparently that control can be exercised only when the machine is visible from the control point. There is no such limitation with the combined direction-finder and automatic pilot. They are set by the human pilot, who watches progress and makes small adjustments in course from time to time to compensate for varying degrees of drift. It is not necessary for the flight to be directed towards the wireless station sending out the signals which are being received. The Droitwich station, for example, was successfully used to control a flight from Croydon to Southampton. The direction-finder receiver is a standard Marconi type already fitted to several aircraft. Outside the body of the aeroplane is a loop aerial, a ring about a foot in diameter, which the pilot can rotate by hand. If the loop aerial is orientated so that its plane is at right angles to the line of flight the course followed will be — neglecting the effect of drift—a straight line pointing to the wireless station. If the plane of the loop aerial is parallel to the line of flight the theoretical course will be a circle with the broadcasting station at its centre. For other angles of orientation intermediate curves between the straight line and the circle are followed. A pilot flying from Croydon to Southampton sets his loop aerial broadside on to Droitwich if he is using that station. His course will then lie on a line which if continued would eventually bring the aeroplane to Droitwich. For convenience a set of curves—they are actually “equal angle spirals”—has been engraved on a transparent disk . The disk is placed on the map with the centre of the disk over the transmitting station. By rotating the disk till another fixed point on it comes over his starting point, the pilot sees the curve or curves which he must follow, and the disk also tells him the correct setting for his loop aerial. He may have to follow one particular curve till it crosses another. If so, he must, on reaching the point of intersection, reorientate the loop aerial and thereby alter the course of the aeroplane so that it will follow the second curve to its destination. The aeroplane, in fact, can be steered merely by rotating the loop aerial. The automatic pilot substitutes for the usual free gyroscope a balanced wheel, universally mounted on the ball end of a spindle. It is claimed to be sufficiently sensitive for all practical purposes in an aircraft without being sensitive enough to be affected by the earth’s rotation. The link between the automatic pilot and the direction-finder is a simple relay, actuated by the wireless signals. Any deviation of the aircraft from its course is at once corrected by the .operation of this relay.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TAWC19380513.2.47

Bibliographic details

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4047, 13 May 1938, Page 7

Word Count
557

AUTOMATIC FLYING Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4047, 13 May 1938, Page 7

AUTOMATIC FLYING Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4047, 13 May 1938, Page 7