TO SLEEP IN SKY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 579, 8 October 1932, Page 1

TO SLEEP IN SKY.

Robot Pilot to Fly ’Plane to Australia. AMAZING BRITISH DEVICE LONDON, September 29 A light aeroplane controlled arid kept to a set course by a robot pilot while the human pilot leans back in his seat and sleeps. This is a vision of the future made possible by* British instrument designers and manufacturers. An aeroplane, probably a De Havilland Fox Moth, fitted with the mechanical pilot, will take off in November in an attempt to smash the England-Australia record of 8 days 20 hours 40 minutes held by Mr C. W. A. Sc oft. The human pilot will probably be Flight-Lieutenant George Cox. It is claimed that the tendency cf automatically controlled aeroplanes to veer away and to require fairly frequent human correction has been over- ; come by an additional instrument, the j design of which is secret. The possibility of the machine diving or even losing height gradually has not been overlooked, and ingenious methods of waking the pilot have been planned. In the event of a sudden dive through engine trouble or any’ other cause, a contact on the air speed indicator coupled to buzzers in the airman’s helmet will wake him. An additional safeguard has been planned should the machine lose height only slowly. When a height of 1000 or 1500 feet has been reached a contact on the height register similarly connected to the airman’s helmet will provide warning. Thus it is claimed the pilot can. with absolute safety, leave the control of his machine and sleep in the air. Not once on the whole journey l>etween England and Australia is the pilot expected to sleep on land, and, m fact, the period on the ground is not likely to exceed four hours in every twenty-four. Flight-Lieutenant Cox has been to Australia once already. He made the journey by’ windjammer before the war in 130 days.