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The control panel for the Minneapolis-Honeywell C-1 gyroscopic autopilot, used on B-24 bombers. The gyroscopic autopilot was a type of autopilot system developed primarily for aviation uses in the early 20th century. Since then, the principles of this autopilot has been the basis of many different aircraft control systems, both military and ...
Lawrence Burst Sperry (21 December 1892, Chicago, Illinois, United States – December 13, 1923, English Channel) was an aviation pioneer who invented the autopilot and the artificial horizon. [ 1 ] Biography
A World War II-era Honeywell C-1 autopilot control panel. In the early days of aviation, aircraft required the continuous attention of a pilot to fly safely. As aircraft range increased, allowing flights of many hours, the constant attention led to serious fatigue. An autopilot is designed to perform some of the pilot's tasks.
The Honeywell C-1 autopilot could be used as an autopilot by the flight crew during the journey to the target area through a control panel in the cockpit, but was more commonly used under direct command of the bombardier. The Norden's box-like autopilot unit sat behind and below the sight and attached to it at a single rotating pivot.
The first test flights of an autopilot-equipped aircraft was in September, 1917, and took place with a human pilot on board to fly the takeoff. By November, the system successfully flew the aircraft to its intended target at a 30-mile (48 km) range, where the distance-measuring gear would drop a bag of sand.
In the case of the single-seat Ar 234, the bombsight was difficult to access, so the autopilot was engaged first, allowing the pilot to remove the control yoke and access the bombsight. [10] After the war about a thousand unused Lotfe 7's were found in the Zeiss factories and shipped to the USSR.
The first flight to Honolulu, a trip of a little more than 2,400 miles, went fine. It would be another 1,900 miles from Honolulu to Howland Island. But during takeoff, Earhart ripped the right ...
The Stabilised Automatic Bomb Sight (SABS) was a Royal Air Force bombsight used in small numbers during World War II. The system worked along similar tachometric principles as the more famous Norden bombsight, but was somewhat simpler, lacking the Norden's autopilot feature.