- 1 day ago
For educational purposes
In the early days of flying, instrumentation was crude, a weighted silk stocking tied to a strut could help the pilot gauge his airspeed.
Wartime challenged pilots to learn the techniques of blind flying.
Today, pilots use orbiting satellites to pinpoint their position, and complex autopilots enable an aircraft to fly itself.
Featured Aircraft:
- Supermarine Spitfire
- Boeing 747-400
- "Link Trainer" - first flight simulator
In the early days of flying, instrumentation was crude, a weighted silk stocking tied to a strut could help the pilot gauge his airspeed.
Wartime challenged pilots to learn the techniques of blind flying.
Today, pilots use orbiting satellites to pinpoint their position, and complex autopilots enable an aircraft to fly itself.
Featured Aircraft:
- Supermarine Spitfire
- Boeing 747-400
- "Link Trainer" - first flight simulator
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:01Hi, I'm Neil Armstrong. Join me for an adventure through time.
01:03Almost non-existent.
01:05A weighted silk stocking or scarf tied to a strut could help the pilot gauge his airspeed.
01:11That's about it.
01:13Pilots of this era were seed-of-the-pants flyers.
01:16Poor visibility and they stayed on the ground.
01:20But they were bold and they often found themselves flying blind through a fog bank or a blizzard.
01:27An unwritten rule said that any good pilot could fly in poor weather by instinct.
01:35Many pilots paid with their lives for believing this myth.
01:49In the early days of aviation, pilots flew by instinct, relying on ground references and their sense of balance to
01:56know if they were level in the air.
01:57Even the common phrase, seat-of-the-pants flying, referred to a deep muscle feeling that pilots experienced that warned
02:06of abnormal pressures from spins or dives.
02:10Navigation in those days was simple.
02:12Pilots watched the ground, following markers like rivers and railroad tracks.
02:17Railroads proved so useful, pilots called them the iron compass.
02:22In bad weather, when visibility was poor and pilots had no ground or horizon references, flying was treacherous and casualties
02:31reached alarming levels.
02:33There were few instruments to help.
02:42The earliest aviation instruments were crude.
02:45In these first motion pictures ever taken from an airplane, the turn-and-slip indicator is visible at the lower
02:52left.
02:53It's a string fluttering from the crosswire.
03:01This airspeed indicator on the strut of a French Newport 11 was used into the 1920s.
03:07As the aircraft flew, the indicator arm was blown backwards.
03:12An improved airspeed indicator was the first widely used flight instrument.
03:17It operated by differential pressure between a tube with sideways-facing holes and an open end facing dead ahead.
03:25Elmer Sperry played a key role in the development of aviation instruments.
03:30He had developed gyroscopic compasses and stabilization instruments for ships.
03:36With the advent of manned flight, he found new uses for the gyroscope.
03:41In 1919, when a Navy Curtis flying boat, the NC-4, made the first transatlantic crossing, it was aided by
03:49a Sperry drift meter.
03:52The Nancys used a line of Navy destroyers as floating navigation beacons.
03:56But when they ran out of ships, skillful use of the compass and drift meter made navigation more precise and
04:03saved precious fuel.
04:11Many old-school flyers scoffed at instruments and preferred to trust their senses.
04:16They had to be convinced that their perceptions were unreliable.
04:22In 1926, an Army Air Corps researcher put veteran pilots in a revolving chair.
04:28Test subjects couldn't tell which direction they were turning or when they stopped.
04:34As in similar tests in Germany, subjects were shocked into acknowledging how misleading their senses could be.
04:42The prejudice against instrumentation quickly became a search for new solutions, both in the cockpit and on the ground.
04:50The first navigational aids were series of light beacons spread across the landscape.
04:55But as one pilot of the era remarked,
04:58when you can see them, you don't need them, and when you need them, you can't see them.
05:02A short time later, low-frequency radio beacons came into use.
05:07A pilot flying an aircraft with a receiver could fly down the radio beam toward an airfield equipped with transmitters.
05:14The obvious drawback to this radio range system was that it provided only a limited number of routes.
05:21It was of little help to a pilot who wanted to fly to a different location.
05:25In 1928, the Guggenheim Fund, with such notable trustees as Charles Lindbergh and Orville Wright,
05:33financed the establishment of the full-flight laboratory at Mitchell Field on Long Island in the U.S.
05:39The Army Air Corps assigned Jimmy Doolittle to the staff.
05:43For flight instruments, Doolittle turned to Elmer Sperry, then almost 70 and semi-retired.
05:50Doolittle gave the Sperry Gyroscope Company a new challenge.
05:54He wanted instruments that would give the exact direction of flight and the attitude of the aircraft instantaneously.
06:02Doolittle installed the instruments in the rear cockpit of a consolidated NY-2 biplane
06:07and covered them with a canvas hood.
06:11On September 24, 1929, Doolittle took off from Mitchell Field into the fog.
06:18With his co-pilot Ben Kelsey riding with his hands outside the cockpit,
06:23Doolittle huddled under the canvas hood, flying by the glowing instruments.
06:28His instruments included an airspeed indicator, an artificial horizon, a directional gyro compass,
06:35an altimeter, a turn and bank indicator, and an improved radio directional finder.
06:42Doolittle flew back and forth 15 miles, piloting his aircraft to a blind touchdown yards from where he had taken
06:49off.
06:50With the first blind flight, the age of instrument flying had arrived.
06:58Experiments like those of the Guggenheim Fund and the efforts of instrument manufacturers like Sperry
07:03had led to rapid improvements in aviation instrumentation.
07:07One example was Sperry's experimental attitude gyro,
07:10though the black and white portions of the sphere were the reverse of instruments now in use.
07:15In a dive, a pilot sees the white part of the sphere.
07:22In a climb, the black part predominates.
07:25In a roll, the artificial horizon turns and black and white alternate.
07:34A spinning rotor within the instrument gives a large amount of gyroscopic inertia,
07:39providing an instrument far superior to the older artificial horizon.
07:44The increase in aviation instrumentation created a new problem for the pilot.
07:49By the mid-1930s, a pilot preparing for a flight in a single-engine aircraft
07:54could be confronted with as many as 48 instrument switches and knobs.
07:59For the first time, the pre-flight checklist came into general use.
08:05By World War II, the RAF standardized the instrument panel
08:10to ease the strain on pilots who flew many different types of aircraft.
08:14The British called this a blind flying panel.
08:18Most of its instruments have remained standard to the present day.
08:22It was a challenging proposition to fly on instruments over England during the war.
08:28But RAF pilots learned the basics and put them into practice.
08:32A major contribution to victory.
08:38By the Second World War, blind flight instrumentation included an airspeed indicator,
08:43artificial horizon, altimeter, turn slip or turn and bank indicator,
08:49gyro compass, and rate of climb or vertical speed indicator.
08:54These were the same basic instruments with which Jimmy Doolittle first flew blind in 1929.
09:01However, with the demands of the war, pilots were rushed into combat,
09:05often with only a few days of instrument training, if any at all.
09:11During World War II, as part of Operation Bolero,
09:15Irv Ethel flew in a squadron of P-38 Lightnings from California to Scotland.
09:20He describes the typical instrument flying of that era.
09:24We had very little instrument training back in the 40s,
09:28particularly in basic flying school,
09:30probably had two, two and a half hours with some link trainer.
09:34So when we left on Bolero from California in P-38s,
09:38the second fighter, the second group of aircraft to fly across the North Atlantic,
09:43we got as far as Iceland and stayed there grouping together
09:48for the flight to Stornaway, Scotland.
09:51The first flight out was on a B-17.
09:54We put four P-38s on each B-17.
09:58And we got to Stornaway, and I could see them.
10:01And they had let down through this fog overcast.
10:04And were told not to do it, to return back because the ceiling was so low.
10:10When they let down, they disappeared.
10:12And somewhere in, oh, less than a minute,
10:16all four of the P-38s and the P-17 come up out of this fog at a very high
10:21angle.
10:22We asked them what was wrong, and they had gotten so low
10:25that they were below the mask of this British battleship.
10:29They were going to run into it, literally.
10:32So they came up on top of the fog and turned around and said,
10:37well, we're going to go ahead and let down.
10:38And they said, no, you go back.
10:41They did turn around and let down.
10:43Now, here again, the fighter pilots had no instrument training.
10:46They were flying on the wing of the B-17.
10:48So they went in and landed against orders.
10:51They were told to return, but they did land successfully.
10:54We had to turn around and go all the way back.
10:57I'm really just as glad because I didn't really want to get into that fog anyway.
11:03Not all pilots went out unprepared.
11:05There was flight training, although some was fairly basic.
11:11Even with the demand of wartime pilots,
11:13most Army Air Corps flyers spent at least several hours
11:16in the then state-of-the-art simulator, the Link trainer.
11:24The pilot trainees practiced blind flying,
11:27and the Link realistically responded,
11:29even spinning out of control.
11:33The instructor guided the pilots via radio,
11:36and a plotted graph showed the course of the simulated flight.
11:41Complete missions, hours long,
11:43could be flown through simulated darkness or foul weather.
11:47Training in the Link saved wear and tear on real aircraft,
11:50and drastically cut the flight time needed to train pilots.
11:54Student flyers took to the air with new confidence.
11:58A new phenomenon, the military training film,
12:02was even used to illustrate the virtues of instrument flight.
12:07Better check my attitude on the little old gyro horizon
12:10to see where I am.
12:11Ah, attitude normal.
12:13Here I am.
12:14Just keep cool, Mort.
12:16Relax, boy.
12:17Looks like a thunder.
12:18Oops, now steady.
12:20Just a little rough air.
12:22Nothing serious.
12:24Maybe climbing a better check for old gyro.
12:28Oh, steep bank.
12:30Steep bank.
12:31Up a little over here.
12:34Down.
12:35Down.
12:45Uh-oh.
12:48Let's get rid of the plane, old boy.
12:59Disorientation crashes occur almost daily.
13:02Many of them are fatal.
13:04But Mort was lucky, and he knew it.
13:06So he boned up on a few things.
13:08Spent a lot of extra time in the Link.
13:10And in the air.
13:23Before the end of World War II, blind landing systems were developed for the militaries.
13:29Blind flight instruments guided both Axis and Allied aircraft to safe landings,
13:34keeping the warplanes flying during bad weather.
13:40Navigational systems were also undergoing development.
13:45In England, radio engineers developed the G navigation system to guide RAF bombers.
13:51Three ground stations filled the sky with guiding signals so that pilots did not have to follow pre-arranged routes.
14:01In the years after the war, navigation systems improved and proliferated.
14:06The British DECA system grew into a whole family of accurate and flexible navigational aids.
14:13The American VOR system was accepted as the world standard, even though it restricted traffic to congested radio beam airways.
14:23Inertial navigation systems are self-contained in the aircraft.
14:28Using extremely accurate gyroscopes and accelerometers, they measure the aircraft's movements and compute its position.
14:37Today, navigation systems are in the midst of a revolution.
14:41The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System allows aircraft worldwide to tune into signals from orbiting satellites.
14:49The satellite receiver can instantly determine exact position and altitude anywhere on the globe within a few feet.
14:59Here in the cockpit of a Boeing 747, it's obvious how the displays have changed.
15:06And you can see why this is called a glass cockpit.
15:11But although there is a wide variety of new information, these screens include the same basic instruments that Jimmy Doolittle
15:20used in 1929.
15:22Some of the instruments are combined, but you can find the altimeter, the artificial horizon, the turn and bank indicator,
15:31vertical speed, directional gyro, and navigation data.
15:36Regardless of the era, pilots need the same basic information to fly in bad weather.
15:47An autopilot to automatically stabilize an aircraft in flight was demonstrated in 1914 by Elmer Sperry's son, Lawrence.
15:56He astounded an international audience by standing in his hydroplane cockpit as gyroscopes linked to cables kept the plane flying
16:04straight and level.
16:07The first fully automatic flight was accomplished using an aircraft that was radio controlled from the ground on August 23,
16:151937 at Wright Field in the United States.
16:21Although a pilot sat in the cockpit of the experimental Army Air Corps plane, he never touched the controls.
16:27The aircraft took off, circled the field, and landed safely.
16:32By 1939, autopilots that controlled roll, pitch, and yaw were commercially available.
16:40During World War II, autopilots acquired additional capabilities.
16:45Bomber pilots could even leave the cockpit as the autopilot flew the aircraft to a selected compass heading or held
16:51a particular airspeed.
16:53Not only could the autopilot correct unwanted disturbances, but it could make the aircraft do maneuvers, such as a correctly
17:00banked turn.
17:02By the 1960s, airliners were equipped with autopilots that made a hands-off landing possible.
17:10From Sperry's crewed cable and linkage system, the modern autopilot has evolved into a sophisticated system capable of flying the
17:19aircraft to its destination and bringing it to a perfect touchdown.
17:24Neil joined the crew of a brand new 747-400 on an automatic flight.
17:29해주ces come on.Craft
17:432-0, roger. Traffic is
17:45a heavy 747 departing momentarily.
17:47I haven't seen anybody on the runway behind the line for quite a while.
17:50Clear.
17:52Roger.
18:08Okay, autothridals are engaged.
18:19There's the automatic thrust cutback.
18:22The autopilot is engaged.
18:26This is all automatic now.
18:29That's what?
18:31That's what?
18:32We're at 182 shuttle for the reservoir to contact.
18:36Roger, good morning.
18:37Send us 271.
18:38We'll put you at a 1.7 from 3.7.
18:41Send us 271.
18:42We're at a 1.7 from 3.7.
18:43Below 10,000, we were climbing at 250 knots, which is required by ATC,
18:47and as soon as we passed 10,000 feet in our climb, we accelerate now to our climb speed,
18:52and it's all automatic.
19:02Traffic.
19:03Traffic.
19:06You can see the light airplane that was just enunciated.
19:12The airplane has automatically established itself on a 24-mile arc relative to the EFRETA VOR.
19:20Grand County is right south of EFRETA a few miles.
19:24It's in the bend of the river over there.
19:33The localizer's armed and the glide slope's armed,
19:36and the airplane will automatically capture the localizer and turn toward the field
19:41and then capture the glide slope and descend toward the runway.
19:54The spoilers or speed brakes are set to arm to deploy automatically on touchdown,
20:00and the brakes are set to automatically engage on touchdown.
20:03The only thing we have to manually do is deploy the thrust reversers.
20:07This indication here at about 50 feet, the airplane, it will go green,
20:12and the airplane will flare automatically.
20:14And then when we touch down or within about five feet of the runway,
20:18the rollout guidance will engage, and the airplane will track the runway,
20:22and I don't have to handle the flight controls at all.
20:29The airspeed cross after the airway, the airspeed passs for 4 in the airway,
20:35and the airspeed in about 50 feet.
20:39The airspeed on the airway,
20:41and the airspeed in about 50 feet.
20:42OK, we've got to feel it, right here we get a bit more!
20:44OK, we've got to feel it.
20:44OK!
20:46All right!
20:49Desteni's mission.
20:51I'm on the first plane!
20:52It's the first plane.
20:59Thousands of pilots learned their instrument training in this link trainer in the 30s and
21:0440s, and it was a challenge.
21:07Join us again next time on First Flight.
Comments