Autopilot
The theory of air transportation in earlier times was strange for most people worldwide. Advanced studies were based on this theory to enhance and facilitate this type of technology. Today we are in the 21st century and the automatic pilot has been introduced and added to the air transportation category. Autopilot or in other words the automatic operation of an aircraft simplified the operation unit of an aircraft and, due to that; it increased the desire of people to be pilots. The essay will initially describe the history of the Autopilot; next it will discuss the technology techniques that were based on it, and finally a brief conclusion will be provided.
The automatic pilot counts as one of the 20th century's leading inventions. This type of system was first tested and developed in 1912 and two years later it was demonstrated to prove for people the great success of traveling through the air with hands-off the control panel. The first autopilot system was performed by connecting a Gyroscopic Heading indicator with an altitude indicator to maintain the altitude level of the aircraft (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/44881/automatic-pilot),
Nowadays, in the modern autopilots, computer software is used to control the aircraft. This type of software is more developed software that divides up the total tasks of the journey into several modes: takeoff, ascent, level, descent, approach and landing phases(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot). The takeoff mode helps to keep the aircraft in the centre of the runway, as the takeoff mission is accomplished; the ascent mode stabilizes the gradual rise and optimizes the fuel consumption by controlling throttles. When the aircraft reaches the constant altitude level, the software operates the aircraft by reading its current position from an inertial guidance system. The Inertial Guidance System is an electronic system that monitors the position, acceleration and velocity of a vehicle to provide the pilot with navigational data or control without the assistance of a base station. There is no doubt that such a type of system accumulates systematic errors, longer flights accumulates more errors and to be significant, automatic check for errors is done every single minute which requires the pilot to handle it in order to prevent risky situations(http://www.ariel.com.au/jokes/Inertial_Guidance_Systems_Explained.html)
In fact, the autopilot system performs some of the total tasks such as elevation stabilization level to find out the current position with the altitude as well as controlling the traveling speed in order to reduce the fuel consumption. Although this performance appears to be credible, there are dangerous systematic errors that require the pilot to be continuously under attention in order to fly safely. On the other hand, it assists the pilot in the landing task that is the most complicated and risky task in the journey by stabilizing the landing altitude smoothly.
The information above has drawn serious attention to the autopilot system. We conclude that this system was installed and programmed in aircraft a century ago. I definitely agree that further advanced studies were taken to develop the system's ability to perform as well as desired. Although the systematic errors are reducing eventually, that is not enough to be fully dependent on the autopilot.
Bibliography
1. (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/44881/automatic-pilot),Web 15 Apr 2010
2. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot). Web 14 Apr 2010
3. (http://www.ariel.com.au/jokes/Inertial_Guidance_Systems_Explained.html) Web 15 Apr 2010
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