1. HISTORY OF AUTOPILOT
FIRST AUTHOR
Gangadhar B Kallur
E407386-AERO FC COE
Abstract - This paper gives overall history of
Autopilot. In the early days of aviation, aircraft
required the continuous attention of a pilot in
order to fly safely. As aircraft range increased
allowing flights duration of many hours, the
constant attention of the pilot led to serious
fatigue. An autopilot is designed to perform
some of the tasks of the pilot.
INTRODUCTION
The first aircraft autopilot was developed
by Sperry Corporation in 1912. The
autopilot connected a ‘gyroscopic
heading indicator’ and ‘attitude indicator’
to hydraulically operated elevators and
rudder. (ailerons were not connected as
wing dihedral was counted upon to
produce the necessary roll stability.) It
permitted the aircraft to fly straight and
level on a compass course without a
pilot's attention, greatly reducing the
pilot's workload.
Lawrence Sperry (the son of famous
inventor Elmer Sperry) demonstrated it
two years later in 1914. At an aviation
safety contest held in Paris, Lawrence
Sperry demonstrated the credibility of the
invention were he showed the flying of
aircraft with his hands away from the
controls and visible to onlookers of the
contest. This autopilot system was also
capable of performing take-off and
landing. The French military command
showed immediate interest in the
autopilot system. Wiley Post used a
Sperry autopilot system to fly alone
around the world in less than eight days
in 1933. Further developments of the
autopilot were performed, such as
improved control algorithms and
hydraulic servomechanisms. Also,
inclusion of additional instrumentation
such as the radio-navigation aids made it
possible to fly during night and in bad
weather.
In 1947 a US Air Force C-53 made a
transatlantic flight, including takeoff and
landing, completely under the control of
an autopilot.
In the early 1920s, the Standard Oil
tanker J.A Moffet became the first ship to
use an autopilot.
Famous inventor and engineer Elmer
Sperry patented the gyrocompass in 1908,
but it was his son, Lawrence Burst
Sperry, who first flight-tested such a
device in an aircraft. The younger
Sperry's autopilot used four gyroscopes to
stabilize the airplane and led to many
flying firsts, including the first night
flight in the history of aviation.
Some of the inventions in the later years:
1908 - Anschuts Gyro Compass
1911 - Sperry Gyro Compass
1912 - First aircraft autopilot was
developed by Sperry Corporation. The
demonstration of which was done by
Lawrence Sperry in later two years in
1914 and proved the credibility of
the invention by flying the aircraft with
his hands away from the controls and
visible to onlookers.
The autopilot connected a gyroscopic
Heading indicator and attitude indicator
to hydraulically operated elevators and
rudder (ailerons were not connected as
wing dihedral was counted upon to
produce the necessary roll stability.) It
permitted the aircraft to fly straight and
level on a compass course without a
pilot's attention, greatly reducing the
pilot's workload.
In December, 1931 - For the first time in
history, a mechanical autopilot is licensed
to fly passengers and airmail. The
Department of Commerce permits it to
serve as copilot of a large Condor 18
passenger plane of Eastern Air Transport
on the New York - Washington route.
The device incorporates a Sperry
gyroscope and operates all the flight
controls of the plane except during take
offs and landings. The hope is that the
device will relieve human pilots of the
strain on long flights or flying in bad
weather.
In 1932, the Sperry Gyroscope Company
developed the automatic pilot that Wiley

2. Post would use in his first solo flight
around the world.
In 1978, the following autopilots were
introduced: Amerogen (Model Reference
Autopilot), Ohtsu (AR Autopilot),
Kallstrom (Self Tuning Autopilot).
The Aircraft and Autopilot Timeline
Figure 1: Autopilot Timeline
The Figure 1. describes the origin and
development of the aircraft autopilot life cycle
with respect to the timelines (1900-2010).
Below is the more description regarding the life
cycle of autopilot:
• In 1267, english philosopher Roger Bacon
describes flying machines in his Opus Majus.
• In 1505, lonardo da Vinci presents in his
Codex on the Flight of Birds plans for flying
machines, helicopters and light hang gliders.
• In 1670, francesco Lana de Terzi shows a
flying ship in his book Prodomo.
• In 1709, Bartolomeu Laurenço de Gusmão
demonstrates hot air balloons.
• In 1783, frenchman inventor Jacques Charles
makes the first flight with a hydrogen
balloon. Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and
François Laurent make the first Montgolfier
hot-air balloon flight.
• In 1785, frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard
and American John Jeffries cross the English
Channel in a balloon.
• In 1797, André Jacques Garnerin jumps with
a parachute from a balloon.
• In 1843, George Cayley and William Samuel
Henson design an aerial carriage.
• In 1852, Frenchman Henri Giffard builds the
first steam balloon.
• In 1870, Alphonse Pénaud develops the
rubber band helicopter toy.
• In 1891, German engineer Otto Lilienthal
studies the aerodynamic effects of wing
shapes.
• In 1896, Samuel Langley launches his first
steam engine-powered unmanned aircraft.
• In 1901, Brazilian Santos-Dumont flies
around the Eiffel tower in Paris.
• In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright fly a
man-controlled airplane.
• In 1904, German professor of mechanics
Ludwig Prandtl researches the aerodynamics
of an aircraft wing.
• In 1905, The Flyer III is built by the Wright
brothers.
• In 1908, first army pilots. First passenger
flight. First female airplane passenger.
• In 1909, Eugène Lefèbvre becomes the first
pilot of a powered airplane to be killed in
flight. French pilot Louis Bleriot crosses for
the first time the English Channel. First
rotary-winged aircraft. First woman pilot
American Geneve Shaffer.
• In 1910, Walter Brookins sets an altitude
record with 6,234 feet.
• In 1911, U.S. Army military flight school is
founded. Retractable landing gear is
invented.
• In 1913, First aerial advertising aka sky
writing.
• In 1914, automatic pilot principle
discovered, later in airplane timeline 2 this
invention will be improved.
• In 1916, altitude record of 16,072 feet was
set. The Sperry Aerial Torpedo tests were the
first guided missile program in this country.
• In 1916, Lawrence Sperry, developer of the
autopilot, formed a new company and set up
flying. Nicknamed Bug, the aerial torpedo
was launched from a dolly running down a
track pointed precisely in the direction of
the target.
• In 1917, Aircraft Manufacturers association
is established. German mechanics scientist
Hugo Junkers creates Junkers J4.
• In 1919, first plane crossing the Atlantic
Ocean nonstop, from Newfoundland to
Ireland.
• In 1921, first refueling in the air aerial. The
pressurized cabin airplane is used.
• In 1924, an airplane flies for the first time
over the North Pole.
• In 1927, Charles Lindbergh makes the first
solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight from New
York to Paris in the Spirit of St Louis. This
event is a historical milestone.

3. • In 1928, the electromechanical flight
simulator is invented. First woman crosses
the Atlantic Ocean by air.
• In 1929, an airplane flies for the first time
over the South Pole. Endurance record with a
Fokker C-2A 172, the craft fklieshours, 176
hours 321 minutes and 2 seconds non-stop.
• In 1930, British mechanic Frank Whittle
creates the jet engine.
• In 1931, Glider flight with a rocket powered
engine.
• In 1932, Non-stop transatlantic solo flight by
Amelia Earhart in a Lockheed Vega 5B from
Los Angeles to Newark.
• In 1933, The Boeing 247, the Douglas RD-2
Dolphin presidential air plane, and the
Douglas DC-1 are introduced.
• In 1935, Douglas DC-3 passenger airliner
presented.
• In 1937, Jet engines are improved.
• In 1938, Lockheed 14 sets a global speed
record in 3 days, 19 hours and 8 minutes.
• In 1939, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Many
air battles during World War II. Russian-born
Igor Sikorsky creates the US Army VS-300
single main rotor helicopter. Germany
contructs the Heinkel 178 fighter.
• In 1940, The autopilot is improved.
• In 1944, Northrop MX-334 rocket driven
airplane was introduced. Developed an
electronic autopilot a wartime improvement
of the automatic pilot.
• In 1946, Douglas XB-43 jet bomber.
• In 1947, The Bell X-1 flies faster than
sound.
• In 1950, Boeing B-52 bomber developed.
• In 1951, Kaman K-225 gas-turbine
helicopter and the Boeing's B-47 bomber are
built.
• In 1952, British BOAC presents the De
Havilland Comet, the first of a series in
airplane timeline. American Richard
Whitcomb discovers the area rule for
designing aircrafts.
• In 1953, Bell X-1A and Douglas D-558-2 fly
Mach 2.
• In 1954, Kaman HTK-1 twin-turbine
helicopter presented.
• In 1957, Dwight D Eisenhower from now on
uses a helicopter, the Bell H-13J. Canadian
pilot Jacqueline Cochran sets the most speed,
altitude and distance records ever in the
airplane timeline history.
• In 1958, Pan American opens its
international commercial service with a
Boeing 707-121.
• In 1959, McDonnell XF-4H-1 sets a new
altitude record of 98,556 feet.
• In 1961, McDonnell XF-4H-1 sets a new
speed record of 16,063 miles per hour.
• In 1964, Geraldine Mock makes the first
female Solo flight around the world.
• In 1965, Lockheed A-12/SR-71 reaches
Mach 3.
• In 1969, Boeing 747 presented.
• In 1975, CESSNA 150 PLANE SURE
FLYERS WITH AUTO PILOT Learn the
thrills of model flying quickly. This Cessna
has an automatic pilot that can be switched
on to control this model airplane through
takeoff flight and landing.
• In 1979, Use of the autopilot enables the
pilot to spend more time on other necessary
aspects of the flight process. When the
weather is bad the autopilot can take on the
otherwise tiring job of maintaining a smooth
ride Other than a lighted switch on the
control panel the autopilot is quite.
• In 1990, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird sets a
transcontinental speed record of Mach 28 or
2, 12405 miles per hour.
• In 1990, Lockheed creates the Stealth F-117
fighter.
• In 1994, Boeing 777-200.
• In 1995, Boeing 777.
• In 1996, American and Russian aerospace
companies develop the second-generation
supersonic jetliner.
• In 2000, Concorde crash in Paris.
• In 2005, Steve Fossett makes a non-stop
non-refueled solo flight around the world.
• In 2007, Garmin's GHP 10 Marine Autopilot
is a new generation of the TR-1 Gladiator
autopilot which has become very popular in
US. Garmin acquired the assets of
Nautamatic Marine Systems, developer of the
TR-1, in March 2007. This new system for
hydraulically-steered boats will feature
Shadow Drive, a patented capability that
automatically disengages the autopilot if the
helm is turned, allowing for quick manual
manoeuvres.

4. • In 2008, A Singapore-bound Qantas jet
carrying 277 passengers was forced to turn
back to the west-coast city of Perth early on
December 27 2008, after the aircraft's auto
pilot disconnected. The plane was about 260
nautical miles (416 kilometers) north-west of
Perth when the malfunction occurred,
disrupting the supply of key information to
flight control computers.
Modern autopilots:
An autopilot is a mechanical,
electrical, or hydraulic system used to
guide a vehicle without assistance from a
human being. An autopilot can refer
specifically to aircraft, self-steering gear
for boats, or auto guidance of space craft
and missiles. The autopilot of an
aircraft is sometimes referred to as
"George."
Figure 2: Autopilot panel
Not all of the passenger aircraft
flying today have an autopilot system.
Older and smaller general aviation
aircraft especially are still hand-flown,
while small airliners with fewer than
twenty seats may also be without an
autopilot as they are used on short-
duration flights with two pilots. The
installation of autopilots in aircraft with
more than twenty seats is generally made
mandatory by international aviation
regulations.
There are three levels of control in
autopilots for smaller aircraft.
1. A single-axis autopilot controls an
aircraft in the roll axis only; such
autopilots are also known colloquially as
"wing levelers", reflecting their
limitations.
2. A two-axis autopilot controls an aircraft
in the pitch axis as well as roll, and may
be little more than a "wing leveler" with
limited pitch-oscillation-correcting
ability; or it may receive inputs from on-
board radio navigation systems to provide
true automatic flight guidance once the
aircraft has taken off until shortly before
landing; or its capabilities may lie
somewhere between these two extremes.
3. A three-axis autopilot adds control in the
yaw axis and is not required in many
small aircraft.
Autopilots in modern complex aircraft are
three-axis and generally divide a flight
into taxi, takeoff, ascent, level, descent,
approach and landing phases. Autopilot
automates all of these flight phases
except the taxiing. An autopilot-
controlled landing on a runway and
controlling the aircraft on rollout (i.e.
keeping it on the center of the runway) is
known as a CAT IIIb landing or Auto
land, available on many major airports
runways today, especially at airports
subject to adverse weather phenomena
such as fog.
Landing, rollout and taxi control to the
aircraft parking position is known as
CAT IIIc. This is not used to date but
may be used in the future. An autopilot is
often an integral component of a Flight
Management System.
Modern autopilots use computer software
to control the aircraft. The software reads
the aircraft's current position, and
controls a Flight Control System to guide
the aircraft. In such a system, besides
classic flight controls, many autopilots
incorporate thrust control capabilities that
can control throttles to optimize the air-
speed, and move fuel to different tanks to
balance the aircraft in an optimal attitude
in the air. Although autopilots handle new
or dangerous situations inflexibly, they
generally fly an aircraft with a lower fuel-
consumption than a human pilot.
The autopilot in a modern large aircraft typically
reads its position and the aircraft's attitude from
an inertial guidance system. Inertial guidance
systems accumulate errors over time. They will
incorporate error reduction systems such as the
carousel system that rotates once a minute so that
any errors are dissipated in different directions
and have an overall nulling effect. Error in
gyroscopes is known as drift. This is due to
physical properties within the system, either it is
mechanical or laser guided, that corrupt
positional data. The disagreements between the

5. two are resolved with digital signal processing,
most often a six-dimensional Kalman filter. The
six dimensions are usually roll, pitch, yaw,
altitude, latitude and longitude. Aircraft may fly
routes that have a required performance factor.
Therefore the amount of error or actual
performance factor must be monitored in order to
fly those particular routes. The longer the flight
the more error accumulates within the system.
Radio aids such as DME and GPS may be used
to correct the aircraft position
CONCLUSION
We understand the timeline of aircrafts and
origin of Autopilot and Detailed life cycle of
autopilot.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to acknowledge my gratitude for
presenting this paper and thank all the Tejasvi
Nagananda and My Wife Madhu.
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6. Websites:
http://www.mnhs.org/school/historyday/herb/aut
opilotback.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot

7. Websites:
http://www.mnhs.org/school/historyday/herb/aut
opilotback.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot