Electrical control in automatic pilots

THE automatic pilot is, as its name implies, a mechanism capable of automatically piloting an aircraft and maintaining it on a course, despite disturbances in the surrounding air.¹ Such terms as “relief pilots,” “maneuvering pilots,” “hard or soft pilots,” are used to classify apparatus which accomplishes this result. Relief pilots are intended to relieve the strain on the human pilot mainly during straight level flight and are more simple than the maneuvering type of pilot. Hard pilots are designed to hold a given course or attitude rigidly without consideration for the comfort of the passengers and crew. The soft pilot, on the other hand, holds the general course and attitude but without uncomfortably jarring the personnel. Some designs of automatic pilots incorporate all the features of relief, maneuvering, and hard or soft control.