Evening star., 1946-06-06
Robot Brain Operate,
Huge Army Plane for
|AAF Demonstration
By Thomos R. Henry
Strr St.H

June o.-AnyDOQy can ny.
1t is just as easy as running a
self-operated elevator. All you do is
push button. The plane takes off
by itself, steers itself, lands itself.
All this is accomplished through a
remarkable robot brain-the Sc
sequence selector-which co-ordi-
mates the behavior of several auto
matte flying devices. BY means of
it completely automatic flight has
been achieved for the first time by
Army AIR Force officers here.
All that is necessary is to know
the way to wherever you want to
60. Before the flight this is fed
into the sequence selector which
thenceforth makes everything else
conform to this route. Here yester-
day giant transport was flown back
and forth automatically, the pilot
only pushing button once at the
start of the trip.
All this is true, naturally, only If
there are no unexpected emergencies.
The robot brain cannot think except
in so far as everything has been
thought out for it in advance and
If any deviation from the planning
became necessary skilled pilot
would be required. So, simple as it
sounds, the day still probably is far
distant when flying will be ridicu-
lously easy for everybody without
previous experience.
The air force has not developed
push-button aviation purely as a.
stunt. 1t is perfectly feasible great
deal Of the time and relieves the
crew of all the routine of plane op-
Grafton.
The pilot taxis the airpIane to the
end of the takeof runway and heads
1t in the direction it is to go. Then
he pushes button which sets off
the first step in the sequence Sc
lection Automatically, power is
applied, the brakes are released, and
the plane flown off the runway by
the automatic pilot, a mechanism
OF which there are several designs
which have been in use for several
years.
At a preselected altitude the
wheels are retracted At some safe
altitude from 300 to l 1000 feet, the
sequence selector sets the power for
a climb, setting and raising the
maps. The next step of the robot
brain is to level off the plane and
turn 1t in preselected direction
The plane will fly on this until a
predetermined number of miles have
been counted off on speed record
ing instrument. 1t then is near it's
destination.
The plane then proceeds to fly to
series OF radio stations in turn.
Upon reaching the last station be-
fore approaching the field, the
sequence selector automatically op-
crates mechanisms to bring the
plane on the proper glide path and
to control the landing speed. A
delay switch applies the brakes on
landing.
AT each OF the radio stations en-
countered near its destination the
plane proceeds only If the sequence
selector gets an all-clear signal.
Otherwise it will circle indefinitely
until such a signal comes through.
Ihls Is compared to the automatic
block system used in railroad traffic
control. For immediate practical
purposes it may be the most valuable
feature of all by simplifying landing
OF planes in bad weather.
This, air force officers here saw
now is one Of the most serious
hurdles for commercial aviation
costing airlines millions of dollars
year through Cancelled flights
When a ticketholder is told that
his flight has been Cancelled "on
account of weather" he assumes
this is because the weather is too
rough for flying. Actually this is
seldom the reason. The airlines
know that with a very low ceiling
they cannot handle the traffic at
a busy airport. Bringing in planes
on blind landings is slow and cum
bersome. Consequently it is neces-
sary to stack" incoming craft at
various attitudes above a field and
perhaps keep them circling for
hours until the runway is clear.
There is limit to the number
that can be thus stacked" and
when this is reached word has to be
sent other airfields not to allow
any more planes to come through
until the stack is disposed of. There
are instances where this condition
has been so bad at La Guardia
Field that it was necessary to keep
planes circling around for hours
as far away as Dayton, Ohio. 1t
is frequent experience that the
last 10 miles of flight takes longer
than the preceding 500 miles.
The Army's all-weather flying
center near here has gone far to-
wards solving this problem with
raoar devices-quite apart from the
work with automatic pilots-and
has reached the point where 60
planes an hour can be landed blind,
or in very bad weather with a zero
ceiling-on relatively narrow land
ing strip. Great radars continuous
ly sweep the skies over a radius of
40 miles, keep track of the exact
position of every plane in the vicin-
ity, and thus guide the pilots to
instrument landings.
The second lap of a series of
scheduled flights to study the eff
fects of cosmic rays on metals and
chemicals under joint auspices of
the National Geographic Society
and the air force got under way
here today with tests at a 5,000-foot
altitude.