Automation in Modern Aircraft

Abstract

In the previous chapter, the aircraft was flown manually. That is, the copilot was steering the aircraft by using a large yoke-shaped control wheel. By turning the wheel left or right, he steered the aircraft in the same way we steer a car. In addition, by pulling back on the control wheel, the pilot made the aircraft climb; by pushing the control wheel forward and down, he made the aircraft descend. Likewise, the engine throttles were operated manually: the pilot pushed them forward to increase thrust on the engines and pulled them back to reduce thrust. Many of the other flying tasks, such as navigating and flying the glide-slope down to the runway, were also done manually.

If you really want to learn, you must mount a machine and become acquainted with its tricks by actual trials.

—Wilbur Wright, quoted in Test Pilots: The Frontiersmen of Flight by Richard Hallion, Doubleday, 1981