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> it’s anything but “autopilot” in any layman sense To be fair, an autopilot, in the traditional sense, just maintains a heading and an altitude.
by Bromskloss 9y ago
> it’s anything but “autopilot” in any layman sense
To be fair, an autopilot, in the traditional sense, just maintains a heading and an altitude.
- jsjohnst 9y agoMost commercial airline autopilots in use today could land the plane on auto if desired by the flight crew, so no, they don’t “just maintains a heading and an altitude”.
- Bromskloss 9y agoI think we all know that such technology exists. That is why I specifically said "in the traditional sense", to point out that I'm talking about what the word was invented for.
- jsjohnst 9y agoBut you missed speed. “In the traditional sense”, that’s also handled.
- falcolas 9y agoAutopilot can refer to everything between a "wing leveler", and a full-on automated landing system. So no, even in aviation there is no standard definition of what autopilot does.