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Examining over 100 years of flight automation and the history of the autopilot

Aerotime

Largely gone are the days when pilots had to manually control their aircraft from engine start-up to shut down by keeping their hands rigidly fixed on the controls at all times. As a result, the first autopilot was developed to introduce an element of control on the trajectory of airplanes. What is an autopilot?

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Today in Aviation History: First Flight of The Mitsubishi 3MT5

Vintage Aviation News

Tasked with creating an aircraft that could meet the Navy’s evolving and often shifting requirements, Petty and his team faced an uphill battle. The design process was fraught with delays as the Navy frequently updated its specifications, a common challenge in the rapidly advancing field of military aviation at the time.