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Examining over 100 years of flight automation and the history of the autopilot

Aerotime

The automatic pilot (autopilot) has to be one of aviations finest technological inventions. Largely gone are the days when pilots had to manually control their aircraft from engine start-up to shut down by keeping their hands rigidly fixed on the controls at all times.

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Chord Line in Aviation? What It Is and Why It Is Important

Pilot Institute

Center of Gravity: Used to calculate and balance the aircraft’s center of gravity. Wing Control: Flaps, slats, and ailerons change the chord line, impacting lift and control. This issue aside, there is another reason why pilots, aircraft engineers, and designers talk about chord lines.

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Everything You Need To Know About Ailerons

Pilot Institute

At first glance, ailerons look like ordinary hinged panels on the wings, but don’t be fooledthey’re important for keeping an aircraft both stable and maneuverable. But theres much more to ailerons than just rolling left or right. But theres much more to ailerons than just rolling left or right. What Is an Aileron?

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Tailless Aircraft: How Airplanes Fly Without a Tail

Pilot Institute

The Weather Vane It mostly comes from the vertical stabilizer (fin) and the sides of the fuselage behind the center of gravity. The reflexed shape of the airfoil usually causes a positive (nose-up) pitching moment coefficient at its aerodynamic center. They combine the functions of elevators and ailerons.

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We Fly: Epic E1000 AX

Flying Magazine

Over the years we’ve flown a lot of aircraft with “aft-tending” centers of gravity—if you filled the seats, you were outside the aft CG limit, and the rear seats in six-place airplanes were unusable. The Epic E1000 AX is so nice to hand-fly that it stands to reason that a lot of pilots won’t make full use of the automation.

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Approachable Excellence

Plane and Pilot

Fearsome metal airplanes helped win a global conflict, yet pilots came home to variations on prewar designs of tube-and-fabric construction and modest performance. Depressions in the vertical stabilizer and rudder, as well as stabilator skins and ailerons, all help increase panel stiffness while allowing less under-skin structure.

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The Role of Newton’s Third Law in Aviation

Pilot Institute

Newton’s Third Law helps pilots and engineers improve flight safety and aircraft performance. If the pilot increases the wings angle of attack too much, the airflow can separate from the wings surface, causing a stall – an abrupt loss of lift. What does Newtons Third law tell pilots about thrust?