Stall Recovery System, Autopilot, Sperry, Stallemometer
date: label: Date
content: 1915
name: label: Manufacturer
content: The Sperry Gyroscope Co.
notes: label: Physical Description
content: 1.5 inches diameter, 3.5 inches long; gray metal; streamlined, strut mount.
label: Summary
content: Elmer Sperry developed the Stallemometer as a follow-on component to the first successful aircraft autopilot, demonstrated by Sperry in 1914. The Stallemometer detected a stall flutter and then function as a switch to drop the nose by twenty degrees through the autopilot until a stall recovery occurred. A light provided a further warning that the stall had occurred and a recovery was underway. Like the autopilot itself, the Stallemometer was not seen by aviators as a desirable innovation due to cost, weight, complexity and its subsuming of pilot control over the flight. Such systems did enjoy a resurgance fifty years later as increasing levels of autopilot autonomy became standard on larger transport aircraft.
place: label: Country of Origin
content: United States of America
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Air and Space Museum Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the Sperry Gyroscope Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Air and Space Museum
identifier: label: Inventory Number
content: A19300012000
objectType: label: Type
content: AVIONICS-Autopilots
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Materials
content: Copper Alloys
label: Materials
content: Non-Magnetic Metal Alloy
label: Materials
content: Glass
label: Materials
content: Natural Fabric
label: Dimensions
content: Approximate (grey object): 5.1 × 59.7 × 8.3cm (2 × 23 1/2 × 3 1/4 in.)
label: Dimensions
content: Approximate (black object): 7 × 4.4 × 14cm (2 3/4 × 1 3/4 × 5 1/2 in.)