How an airplane flies: autopilot vs live pilot. Who controls your aircraft - the pilot or the autopilot? Who controls the aircraft pilot or autopilot

Guys, we put our soul into the site. Thanks for that
for discovering this beauty. Thanks for the inspiration and goosebumps.
Join us at Facebook and In contact with

It is easier to believe in magic than to understand how a person manages to lift a multi-ton iron bird into the sky. Ignorance breeds fear of the unknown. Therefore, many pilots and other airline employees are happy to tell what is really worth fearing and why airplanes are wonderful!

website chose 16 understandable answers to the most exciting and difficult questions that interest everyone who has seen an airplane at least once in their life.

16. How to get to the pilots if their door is locked from the inside?

The beard, bushy mustache, piercings, and any other decorations and "growths" on the face prevent the pilot from using an oxygen mask, which must fit snugly over the face. Therefore, the pilot's face is always clean, sometimes slightly unshaven is allowed. Otherwise, a situation is created that endangers the lives of passengers.

14. What happens if all engines fail?

During each flight, the aircraft switches to a mode in which . If in a car with a manual transmission to shift the lever to neutral, going down the hill, it will be the same. Complete engine failure is extremely rare, and in this case there is a special instruction for restarting them.

But also without engines, the plane can land on a gliding descent. The most famous incident was with a Boeing 747 over Java in 1982, when the aircraft was caught in a cloud of dust from an erupting volcano and all 4 engines failed. The crew managed to land the plane at the nearest airport, and none of the 263 people was injured.

13. How long do oxygen masks last?

The oxygen level and pressure inside the aircraft are maintained artificially. If the cabin depressurizes at high altitude, a person develops hypoxia: he loses consciousness and can die without an oxygen mask.

7. How do pilots eat during the flight?

Sometimes, as part of their work, pilots fly with passengers from one airport to another. If they are on board in uniform, then with passengers they will sleep, eat or watch movies with headphones. The sight of a pilot in uniform during such activities can be misleading and lead to panic among passengers. But more often, uniformed pilots fly in spare seats in the cockpit or in first class.

5. What is more terrible - crashing into a bird, getting hit by hail or getting struck by lightning?

Lightning often hits the plane, but the passengers do not even notice it. In extremely rare cases, this can lead to a blackout of the aircraft. In this case, the pilots have several instructions that literally reset the electronics on board, and the flight continues as usual.

Birds are a big danger than it seems. Entry into a fan or turbine can result in engine destruction, failure, and even fire. Not every windshield will survive a bird strike. Therefore, airports use noise generators, falcons and even helicopters to scare away birds.

Hail is no less dangerous, but aggressive weather conditions are easier for an aircraft to detect and fly around.

4. Why are spirals drawn on turbines?

Denokan (pilot-instructor of one of the largest airlines in Russia): Quite often, on aviation and not so forums and websites, the question is raised about how modern civil aircraft a pilot is needed. Like, with the current level of automation, what are they doing there if the autopilot does everything for them?

Not a single conversation is complete without mentioning unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and, as a climax, the flight of Buran.

“You are tormented by this question, you want to talk about it”?

Well, let's talk.

What is an autopilot?

The best autopilot I have ever seen is featured in the American comedy Airplane.

However, in that film, he accidentally failed, and if not for the heroic loser, the happy ending would not have happened. Although, there was also a stewardess… Well, in any case, there was a person.

In fact, many pilots do not enter into an argument with people who are far from aviation because they know how the most modern technology sometimes behaves. I won't argue, I'll just tell and then you at least fight there) Joke.

Our autopilots are a mixture of metal, plastic, glass, light bulbs, buttons, knobs and wires. And switches. Nothing human at all.

The pilot controls the autopilot (the sacramental meaning is already hidden in this phrase) through the consoles. The photo below shows the cockpit of a not the most modern B737CL aircraft, but in reality, in this regard, there are no global differences between it, created in the 80s of the last century, and the B787, which first took to the skies a few years ago.

The main control panel for automation in general and the autopilot in particular (MSP) can be seen almost in the middle of the photo. Each button on it is responsible for turning on one of the autopilot modes, and the four buttons on the right (A / P ENGAGE A - B) are responsible, in fact, for turning on the autopilot. By the way, with the configuration of the autopilot controls that is fixed in the photo, the autopilot will not turn on. Let the experts answer why.

The numbers in the boxes indicate the data that is necessary for a particular mode of operation of the autopilot. For example, in the ALTITUDE window, you can see 3500 - this means that if after takeoff we turn on the autopilot and set some climb mode, the plane will take an altitude of 3500 feet and fly stupidly at it until the pilot sets a new altitude value and ... again will not enable any dialing mode.

By itself, the autopilot will not change the altitude and will not go into a set.

Furthermore. The pilot can choose an altitude of, say, 10,000 feet, but turn on the wrong autopilot mode, and the plane will obediently fly down until it hits the ground.

Similarly, if there is a mountain ahead on the course set by the pilot in the HEADING box, then the plane will fly up the mountain and will definitely crash into it if the pilot does not take any action.

Yes, it is also worth noting that the autopilot of a modern aircraft is paired with an autothrottle - this is another set of pieces of iron and wires that is responsible for automatically changing the engine mode, that is, thrust. In the photo above on the MCP on the left you can see a small switch labeled A / T ARM / OFF, it is responsible for turning on the autothrottle in ready-to-use mode. However, sometimes they have to work not in pairs (for example, if the autothrottle is faulty), which imposes significant restrictions on the autopilot, since many autopilot modes require changes in thrust. For example, the autopilot needs to descend, but the thrust set to the takeoff mode will not stupidly do this.

In the photo below you can see the control panel of the FMS - flight management system (flight management system). Through this panel, you can enter some useful data, with the help of which the automation will know which route the plane is flying today, about which thrust and speed values ​​\u200b\u200bwill be optimal today.

After takeoff, the pilot can turn on (or turn on automatically) the autopilot mode, in which the aircraft will fly on commands received from this system. However, as I said above, if it hits a height of 3500 set in the MCP window, then it will not fly higher until the pilot changes this value.

The most important limitation of modern software systems (and autopilot is nothing more than a piece of iron stuffed with algorithms) is the inability to make non-standard decisions that depend on the specific situation.

The aircraft control algorithms themselves are not at all complicated, so autopilots on aircraft began to appear as early as 1912, and in the 1930s they began to become widespread.

I am more than sure that even then there were talks that the profession “pilot” would soon become obsolete, as well as the profession “coachman”. Many years later, Anatoly Markusha, in one of his books, recounted a conversation he overheard of a girl who expressed claims to her young man that he needed to look for another profession, they say, pilots would soon be no longer needed.

Since then, another 40 years have passed, and this topic - decision-making in non-standard situations by the creators of the latest aircraft has not been defeated.

Yes, many aviation professions have sunk into oblivion - the flight engineer who was in charge of the "economy", the navigator who provided navigation, the radio operator - who was in communication ... They were replaced by smart systems, that's for sure. True, at the same time, the requirements for training increased ... and in some situations, the load on the two (!) Pilots remaining in the cockpit. Now they have to not only cope with a bunch of systems (the way and as automated as possible), but also have a lot of knowledge in their heads, which they usually didn’t use in flight before (and faded over time), because. narrow specialists in these areas were sitting in the cockpit.

Yes, some UAVs fly autonomously (and some are controlled by operators from the ground), and Buran successfully made one (!) flight in automatic mode without a pilot on board. But these are precisely those algorithms, the programming of which has been possible for a very, very long time.

Any interested programmer for the sake of sporting interest can come up with an add-on to Microsoft Flight Simulator and land their Snowstorms at least in Zavyalovka, and then go to the aviation forum and mock the profession of “aircraft driver”.

But here I am, an “airplane driver”, having an understanding of the situations that arise in the sky, which require constant decision-making, I will not dare to get into an airplane, the brain of which is not a person, but the Autopilot v.10.01 program, in which programming errors have been fixed identified in the previous ten disasters.

For example, today, despite the practical possibility of creating such a regime, aircraft do not take off automatically. And this despite the fact that automatic landing and automatic run after it have been mastered for a very long time. Why?
Mikhail Gromov also said “Taking off is dangerous, flying is beautiful, landing is difficult”. True. Taking off is easier than landing, however, if something happens on takeoff, sometimes it counts for a fraction of a second. During this time, the pilot needs to make a decision - to stop the takeoff or continue. Moreover, depending on the factors, for the same reason, one day it is better to stop the take-off, and the next it is better to continue. While the pilot is thinking, a heavy aircraft with a huge fuel supply is rapidly accelerating, and the runway is rapidly decreasing. Failures can be very diverse (alas, but the equipment still fails) and not always the failure comes down to a banal engine malfunction. And engine failures can also be different.

That is, a programmer who wants to remove a person from the aircraft control loop and the decision-making loop will need to write a bunch of algorithms for actions in various kinds of emergency situations. And after each unrecorded case, release a new firmware version.

Currently, “unreported cases” are solved by having a person in the cockpit who will swear (or remain silent, depending on the shutter speed), but will cope with the situation and return the plane to the ground.

And in most cases, idle inhabitants simply do not know about such cases, because not everything is reported in the press.

Not a single instruction provides for such an oversight - to leave a piece of the emergency escape cable overboard. What would Autopilot v.10.01 do in this case, how would he know that his window will soon be broken? No way. He would continue to climb 11 km in height, and when a window would break there, according to the planned program, he would undertake an emergency descent with the masks thrown out ... but they would not help the passengers much.

What did the pilots do? Firstly, we received information about the passing event quite early. Secondly, despite the unrevealed nature of the phenomenon, they understood how this non-standard situation could end and made the only right decision - to descend and return to the departure airfield.

And this is just ONE of the situations that happened in the career of only TWO pilots (me and the co-pilot). And there are thousands of pilots, and hundreds of thousands of situations.

Some “householders” oppose numbers, saying that a person is a weak link, according to statistics, 80% of all disasters occurred due to the fault of the human factor.

All right. The technology has become so reliable that in most cases a person fails. However, I will remind you once again that idle "householders" simply do not think that many flights in which the equipment failed ended safely only because the human factor was sitting in the cockpit.

I assure you, if you remove the pilots from the cockpit, then the proportion of the human factor will increase EVEN more, but only in this case, the human factor will be understood as a programming error.

Further, in an airplane, everything may work very well for the entire flight, however ... it may not work very well on the ground. In order for the plane to fly to the airfield and land there, a whole bunch of systems have been created, which are what? ... That's right, sometimes they fail. And in this case, the pilot “wakes up” and does his job.

Banal decision-making when bypassing thunderstorms. Here, for example, my flight to Genoa, I called it “the tinker's flight” http://denokan.livejournal.com/66370.htm l

And that's just three flights. And only one individual pilot has hundreds of times more of them.

Thunderstorms look different on the radar, and not always one workaround solution will be as good for another case. And when this thunderstorm is located in the area of ​​​​the airfield ... And if this airfield is mountainous? You have to think and make decisions...

If a plane is hit by lightning or static discharges, then people will not die from this hit, but systems can fail unpredictably. And there were cases that ended well only because the pilots were sitting in the cockpit.

It is worth adding to all of the above that far from all airports today the plane can perform an automatic landing. It requires rather greenhouse conditions compared to those in which a pilot can land. Of course, this is a matter of programming algorithms, but the task is not easy enough to ensure equal reliability.

Of course, if you skimp on reliability, then it has long been possible to produce aircraft on the line without pilot-operators.

The main reason why aircraft without pilots have not yet entered civilian lines is this very RELIABILITY. For the needs of the military or shippers, the reliability may not be as high as for transporting people by air.

Of course, the degree of automation will increase. This also determines the reliability of the crew-aircraft system. Of course, the search for better solutions will continue to ensure that aircraft reliably flew without human intervention. True, it will be possible to completely exclude human participation from the flight only when artificial intelligence is invented that is not inferior to the intelligence of a trained person. The problem of making decisions in non-standard situations will not go anywhere. An airplane is not a car, so that in an unusual situation it’s just stupid to stop on the side of the road.

One option is for the operator to control the aircraft from the ground. That is, the operator on the ground controls the flight of one or more aircraft, making decisions in non-standard situations. If something happens that he is not able to solve from the ground, he remains alive ... And the passengers die. Then the next version of the software appears.

So let's focus our efforts not on discussing the profession of a pilot (each such discussion sooner or later turns into the topic “what do pilots get sooo much money for?”), but let's concentrate our efforts on creating in our direct specialty.

Well, literally a couple of “happy rescues” of the plane and the people in it.

A little text from Wikipedia:

The OO-DLL took off from Baghdad International Airport at 18:30 UTC and headed for Bahrain. After takeoff, the plane gained an altitude of 8000 feet (2450 meters) when suddenly there was an explosion of a rocket fired from the Strela-3 MANPADS. The explosion damaged the left wing, fuel leaked from the left wing tanks, mechanization was also damaged, which contributed to an increase in drag and a drop in lift. Also, the pressure in all three hydraulic systems began to drop rapidly and soon there was a complete failure.

As with United Airlines Flight 232, which also lost hydraulics, the crew on board OO-DLL could only control the aircraft with engine power. The flight engineer manually released the landing gear.

After 10 minutes of experimentation on the damaged aircraft, the crew requested an emergency emergency landing at Baghdad airport and began to descend, performing a smooth right turn.

Since fuel leaked from the damaged wing, it was necessary to control the fuel level in the tank, the flight engineer began pumping fuel from the right to the left wing tank, in order to prevent the failure of the left engine, which would inevitably lead to disaster.

The PIC and co-pilot decided to land on runway #33R.

At an altitude of 400 feet (120 meters), turbulence increased, which rocked the damaged Airbus A300. The touchdown of the aircraft with the runway occurred with an offset from the center line, the pilots instantly activated thrust reversers, but the aircraft left the runway and rushed along the ground, leaving behind a plume of sand and dust. Finally, the plane stopped after about 1000 meters, while no one was injured.

In another source, I read that the adventure did not end there, the plane stopped in a minefield. But everyone survived, and this is the main thing. A couple of weeks later, the pilots flew again, and the flight engineer decided that this flight was a good apogee of his career and switched to ground work at DHL.

In teaching CRM, this flight is seen as a prime example of great teamwork between the crew, who wisely managed little resources and managed to get the plane back on the ground.

The next example is even more revealing.

The famous "landing on the Hudson"

Flight AWE1549 departed New York at 15:24 EST (20:24 UTC). 90 seconds after takeoff, the voice recorder recorded a remark from the crew commander regarding the ingress of birds. After another second, the sounds of impacts and the rapid fading of the sound of both engines were recorded.

The plane managed to gain a height of 3200 feet (975 meters). The PIC gave a distress signal and informed the controller about the collision of the aircraft with a flock of birds, as a result of which both engines were disabled. The loss of thrust from both engines was confirmed by a preliminary analysis of the flight recorder records.

The pilots managed to turn the plane flying north to south, glide over the Hudson without hitting the George Washington Bridge, and splash down the liner opposite Manhattan's 48th Street without destroying the heavy refueled aircraft. Finally, he stopped in front of 42nd Street. In total, the plane stayed in the air for about three minutes.

After splashdown, the aircraft remained on the surface of the water, and the passengers exited through both emergency exits onto the wing planes. All passengers on board were rescued by ferries and boats, which approached the emergency aircraft a few minutes later (one of the ferry crossings between Manhattan and New Jersey).

78 people received medical care for minor injuries and hypothermia (the water temperature was quite low, various media give figures from “near zero” to sometimes negative water temperatures).

These guys generally worked as if every day they did nothing but land a plane full of fuel and passengers, without engines, on the water of the Hudson. By itself, landing on water is very difficult, especially on a river with bridges and heavy traffic.

The interaction between the crew and the dispatcher in this situation is a vivid example of how to work in a seemingly 100% hopeless situation. That's really all I wanted to say...

If you list all the cases of "happy rescues", less high-profile, it will take a very long time.

The birth of the aircraft industry changed a lot of things in the design of aircraft and their control. Even 20-30 years ago, such a device as an autopilot was unknown to almost anyone. Over the years, the situation has changed radically. Most of the flight control of huge passenger airliners is carried out by autopilots. We can say that the pilot actively participates only in taxiing and takeoff, after which he transfers control to the system. Pilot intervention is also needed when the vessel is landing. The on-board computer of aircraft greatly simplifies the tasks of management and control.

Pilots of modern Airbus models often joke that a dog and one person are enough to fly new models of passenger liners. The dog is needed to bite the pilot so that he does not reach for the levers and control buttons, and the person is needed in order to feed the dog. Of course, this is a joke that appeared due to modern control systems such as fly-by-wire, in other words, this is a radio remote control of the device. It allows for the transmission of signals from the pilot himself to the aircraft's mechanisms in the form of electrical signals. This means that instead of using the old hydraulics, the pilots control by sending signals through the computer to the individual mechanisms of the machine.

What is an autopilot in the broadest sense of the term? This is a software and hardware system that has the ability to drive a vehicle along a given route. Every year there are more and more innovations in many branches of the transport structure. Nevertheless, air transport occupies a leading position.

The autopilot of the aircraft is designed to stabilize all the parameters of the flight of the vessel and maintain a predetermined course. At the same time, the speed and altitude set by the pilot are observed. Before transferring the aircraft to autopilot mode, it is necessary to create a clear flight without slipping or blocking the machine. After the aircraft is stabilized on all planes, it is possible to turn on the automatic control system, but it is necessary to carry out regular monitoring of indicators. It is worth noting that military aircraft also have such systems.

More complex in their design and reliable autopilots began to be installed on domestic aircraft from the end of the 70s.

A Brief History of Autopilot

The first autopilot in the world was created back in 1912. The invention belongs to the American company Sperry Corporation, which was able to create a system that keeps the aircraft on a given trajectory, while stabilizing the roll. This was achieved by linking the altimeter and compass to the rudders and elevators. Communication was set up through the use of a block and a hydraulic drive.

The diagram shows how a typical autopilot works.

Pre-calculated flight parameters are entered into the aircraft computers (1).

After takeoff, the autopilot takes over.

Two displays (2) show the position of the aircraft, its intended route and altitude.

Changing the position of small flaps (3) on the outer surface of the aircraft alerts the computers to the slightest change in the orientation of the aircraft.

To determine the position, the global navigation system (GOS) (4) is used.

The receiver is located on the top of the housing (5).

Computers monitor the route and automatically make the necessary changes through servo mechanisms (6),

who control the steering wheel (7),

elevators (8),

ailerons (9),

flaps (10)

and adjustment of motor chokes (11)

If necessary, the pilot can at any time turn off the autopilot and switch to manual control (12)

Starting from the 30s of the 20th century, some passenger airliners began to be equipped with autopilots. A new round in the development of automatic control systems was introduced by the Second World War, which required similar technology for long-range bombers. The first fully automatic flight across the Atlantic, including landing and takeoff, was carried out by the US C-54 aircraft. This happened in 1947.

The current stage in the development of automated aircraft control systems has reached a qualitatively new level. To date, the liners are equipped with VBSU or ACS systems. The automatic control system "SAU" provides high-quality stabilization of the vessel on the route and in space. The totality of the system units allows you to control the device at all stages of the flight. The most modern developments allow flying in the so-called helm mode, which makes it possible to facilitate the work of the pilot as much as possible, to minimize his intervention. Such systems independently stabilize the aircraft against drift, slip or bumpiness, can even switch to critical flight modes, while very often ignoring the actions of the pilots.

The autopilot of the aircraft guides the device along a given route, while using the complex information of navigation devices of its own and ground sensors, which analyze the flight. This system controls all units of the aircraft. Trajectory systems also work, which carry out landing approaches with high accuracy without any pilot action.

Control devices in their standard form (levers, pedals) are practically not used. A high degree of automation brought control to the supply of electrical impulses to all parts of the aircraft without the use of hydraulics in the control system. Electromechanical controls allow pilots to recreate more familiar conditions. Increasingly, side stick controls are being installed in cockpits.

Aircraft automatic control problems

Of course, the primary and most important problem in the creation of autopilots is to maintain flight safety. In most older automatic control systems, the pilot has the ability to emergency disengage the autopilot and switch to manual control at any time. In the event of a violation or breakdown of the autopilot, it is imperative to turn off the system in the usual way or mechanically. In the Tu-134 apparatus, it is possible to "shoot" the autopilot with an installed squib. When developing an autopilot, options for disabling it in the event of a breakdown without harm to flight are carefully considered.

To increase safety, the control automation operates in a multi-channel mode. In parallel, four piloting systems with the same parameters and capabilities can work at once. The system also conducts constant analysis and monitoring of incoming information signals. The flight is carried out on the basis of the so-called quorum method, which consists of making a decision according to the data of most systems.

In the event of a breakdown, the autopilot is able to independently choose a further control mode. This may be a switch to another control channel or a transfer of control to the pilot. To check the operation of the systems, it is necessary to carry out the so-called pre-flight run of the systems. This test consists of running a step-by-step program that provides simulated flight signals.

Yet no test can achieve a 100% guarantee of safety and performance in flight. Due to non-standard situations in the air, additional problems with automatic control may arise. Some autopilots have different programs that allow you to fly the aircraft in question in the safest way.

Nevertheless, flying on one autopilot without a human factor is very dangerous and almost impossible. One logical conclusion can be drawn that the smarter the aircraft and the more complex its design, the less likely it is to fly without human intervention. The more new automated systems are used, the greater the chances of them failing in flight. It is almost impossible to calculate all the failure options. That is why the skills of the pilot will remain in demand all the time, since every pilot goes a very long way to the management of passenger liners. Accordingly, skills and quick decision-making remain more important than the actions of computer programs.

The most advanced fly-by-wire automatic control systems have significantly reduced the overall weight of the aircraft structure. At the same time, the reliability of on-board systems has increased significantly. The equipment responds without delay, and is also able to correct errors caused by human error during operation. This suggests that the system will not allow the pilot to start the car in a situation that is dangerous for her and passengers on board. Modern aircraft such as Airbus are no longer equipped with standard levers and control pedals, instead joysticks are installed. All this allows the pilots not to think about what command and how to send a separate unit. No need to think over the angle of deflection of the ailerons or flaps, just tilt the control joystick - and the computer will do everything by itself.

Nevertheless, despite the whole rosy picture, many crashes and accidents occurred due to the fault of autopilots, which led to human casualties. The history of air crashes due to the fault of automatic control systems, unfortunately, is very rich in facts about the unreliability of such systems.

Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Airlines, was once asked:
- You always save on everything. What's next - you put one pilot in the cockpit instead of two?
- Then we will generally remove the pilots from the cockpit.

"Yes, what's so complicated, turned on the autopilot - and sleep." This is the favorite argument of the sofa guard in conversations about aviation, after which the deep conclusion inevitably follows “it is not clear why they are paid so much money for”. Or maybe it's true flight by plane such a simple thing that there is no point in going through a long and complicated training on aircraft pilot to thoroughly understand how flying plane, constantly confirm your qualifications, learn English and shake with fear on the eve of VLEK, since the cockpit of a modern airliner is equipped with a magic “autopilot” button?

The pilot controls the autopilot

First you have to realize that there is no magic button. Instead, there is a whole panel of sensors, toggle switches, switches, light bulbs and kilometers of wires connecting all this economy with the components and assemblies of the aircraft. Without human intervention, they will still remain glass, plastic and metal. Therefore, the pilot controls the autopilot. No matter how strange it may sound.

But before pressing the cherished button, you need to at least calculate the amount of fuel, taking into account the number of passengers, cargo, weather, the ability to go to an alternate airfield “if anything”, find out where there are such airfields throughout the flight, and constantly keep them in mind , make sure that all systems are working, ask the dispatcher for permission to taxi (and in loaded international airports traffic jams on taxiways are sometimes worse than city ones), roll to the runway, double-check everything again, take off, keeping in mind the need to immediately stop take-off at any moment, gain altitude, and only after that, having taken the flight level, maybe transfer the aircraft control to automatic mode. This is if the weather is perfect and there is no need to bypass the storm clouds, which is quite rare.

“Flying the aircraft in automatic mode” in this case will mean that the pilot has set certain values ​​\u200b\u200bof speed and altitude. If conditions change and the altitude needs to be changed, the autopilot will not know about it. Moreover, a modern autopilot has several operating modes, and different pilot commands should not contradict each other. You can, for example, set the altitude to 10,000 feet, but turn on the descent mode, and the plane will obediently fly down. He, of course, will screech and squeal heart-rendingly, but he will not do anything, because a set of light bulbs, buttons and wires does not know how does an airplane fly.

With proper handling, the autopilot greatly facilitates the life of the crew, taking on the routine part of the work, but pilots definitely do not receive high salaries for this. It's like being offended by journalists that they write texts on a computer, and not with a quill pen.

About goose feathers or why an airplane pilot will always be needed

In the book of the Soviet writer and fighter pilot Anatoly Markushi there is a wonderful scene. The girl blames her young man for choosing the wrong profession, as pilots will soon be no longer needed.

This was over half a century ago. Television, by the way, threatening to “kill” theater and cinema, was invented later by an autopilot, and the art of Melpomene lives on and on. What can we say about such a subtle matter as flying on an airplane.

The first autopilot was developed by the American corporation Sperry Corporation already in 1912. And in the 1930s, many passenger liners equipped with systems that automatically maintain the course and align the roll with respect to the ground.
In 1947, a US Air Force Douglas C-54 flew across the Atlantic in a fully automatic manner, including takeoff and landing.

Oddly enough, but if in other areas technical excellence contributes to progress, in aviation the opposite is true. The more complex, bigger, more comfortable and "smarter" the plane is, the less likely it is to fly by itself someday. The more technologically advanced the filling, the higher the probability of failure of each of its components, and the more such filling, the more possible combinations of failures that no computer is able to calculate.

That is why a competent aircraft pilot, trained in piloting "on hand", who has consistently passed all stages of training - from a small Cessna to an airliner - will always be in demand.

"Taking off is dangerous, flying is beautiful, landing is difficult"

This is also Mikhail Gromov - the same one who in 1937, in company with Yumashev, made a non-stop flight Moscow - the North Pole - the USA - said. Even people far from aviation, not really realizing how does an airplane fly, understand that just like that from a height of 10 thousand meters, he will not fall. Most air crashes happen during takeoff and landing. That is, that part of the flight that the autopilot is not yet very good at coping with.

Yes, systems capable of lifting and landing an aircraft in a fully automatic mode have long been created, but one must understand that such aircraft require practically laboratory conditions. Firstly, ideal weather - wind no more than 10 m / s, no rain, ice, snow or thunderstorms. Secondly, an airport equipped with the so-called ILS (Instrumental Landing System) - an automatic approach system.

Roughly speaking, this is a set of beacons and sensors, with the help of which flight by plane can be done literally blind. Only very large international hubs in developed countries can afford such equipment. On the other hand, there are usually a lot of people who want to fly to developed countries, and the more aircraft in the air per unit time, the higher the likelihood of an ILS system failure due to space overloaded with all kinds of radio waves and sensors. Vicious circle.
Nevertheless, talk about the fact that automation will soon force out living pilots from the cockpit does not stop.

5 reasons why this will definitely not happen in the foreseeable future

- Lack of necessary infrastructure. Landing on autopilot with zero horizontal and vertical visibility (for example, in dense fog) is allowed only at airports certified to ICAO category III. This certification is not that difficult to implement technically, but very expensive. It is not economically profitable to invest that kind of money in one and a half kilometers of concrete, built by the British colonialists (or rosy-cheeked builders of communism, depending on geography). And the economy in modern aviation decides, if not everything, then a lot.

Radio exchange. Throughout the entire route, the aircraft is accompanied by air traffic controllers on the ground. The land is big and different. It is generally accepted that English is considered the universal language in aviation, but any pilot with experience in international flights will say that it is different in each country. In this regard, “Chinese English” is considered a classic of the genre, which is almost impossible to disassemble out of habit. A machine will definitely not cope with this, but a person knows how to adapt to everything.

Intuition multiplied by experience. Aircraft manufacturers always include an operation manual and emergency action cards with the aircraft. So, double (triple, etc.) failures are not provided for in them. More precisely, they are provided, but with the wording "the crew itself determines the sequence of actions, based on their experience, knowledge and the current situation." The autopilot does not have its own knowledge, and a computer that could calculate all combinations of situations, if possible in theory, will weigh like three aircraft in real life.

High cost. The same coffee maker that costs a hundred dollars in a Home Store will cost ten thousand aboard a business jet. Not because “steepness is more expensive than money”, but because it must comply with international safety requirements for on-board equipment. What can we say about the equipment that is responsible for the lives of passengers? At the same time, airfare will be such that civil aviation will lose the whole meaning of its existence.

Psychology of passengers. This is the simplest and most difficult at the same time. There are many people in the world who are ready to give their hard-earned money for flight without pilot? Especially if this ticket costs more than an expedition to the ISS?

It's nice to dream, but it's easy to fantasize. Perhaps someday humanity will reach such a peak that it will bring up artificial intelligence and build a perfect ILS infrastructure in the most remote corners of the Earth. In the meantime, we don’t even have gas with sewage everywhere, it’s well-prepared airplane pilot, whose training took place in conditions close to earthly realities - with live examples, in different weather conditions, with the need to instantly make decisions with his head, and not with an autopilot, he will always find a job. At least for the next 100-200 years.

Entering the plane, any passenger will look not only to the right, but also to the left. Sometimes the door to the cockpit is open and we see how complicated everything is inside. We will explain what the main levers, toggle switches and panels mean.

1. Attitude of the aircraft

The pitch is displayed on the screen - the movement of the aircraft in the longitudinal channel. Simply put, pitch is the elevation of the nose or tail of an aircraft. Also here you can see the roll of the aircraft in the transverse channel, that is, the rise of the right or left wing

2. Navigation display

Reminiscent of a traditional car navigator. As in a car, it displays data about the destination, current location, how far the plane has already flown and how far

3. Duplicating device of the spatial position of the aircraft and navigation

4. Clock

5. On-board computer

Before the flight, pilots manually enter data into it: from where and where we are flying, weight, balance, takeoff speeds, wind along the route. The computer calculates the required fuel for the flight, the remaining fuel, the flight time ...

6. Handle release and cleaning of the chassis

7. Sidestick

Aircraft control stick, replaces the steering wheel

8. Autopilot off button

9. Brake pedals

Two pedals are used for braking in an airplane. They work separately. The intensity of braking depends on the force of pressing the pedal: the harder we press, the faster it brakes

10. Fire fighting system

In the event of a fire, the indicators light up. We see in which part of the ship the fire is located, and we turn on the automated fire extinguishing mode. Hand fire extinguishers are located in the cab and in the saloon

11. Buttons for turning on fuel pumps

12. Window opening handle

13. Autopilot

The autopilot requires data that we entered into the on-board computer. We turn on the autopilot after takeoff, when the plane has reached the required height. Landing on autopilot is used in special situations, such as fog

14. Engine control lever

This is the same as the gas pedal in a car. It controls the thrust of the engine.

15. Spoiler control toggle switch

Spoilers - folding flaps on the upper plane of the wing. They are air brakes. It is often necessary to slow down in the air, especially when landing. In this case, we release spoilers. They create additional resistance, and the aircraft's speed drops.

16. Flaps control knob

Flaps - deflectable surfaces located on the trailing edge of the wing. We release them during takeoff to increase the wing area, and, accordingly, the lift of the aircraft. Having gained the required height, we remove the flaps

17. Battery activation buttons

18. Air temperature control buttons in the cockpit and cabin

19. Tablet computer

It contains collections of airport diagrams and maps. different countries. You can also display a picture from video cameras installed in the aircraft cabin.

20. Aircraft control panel

Here are the buttons for turning on the autothrottle, switches for selecting navigation aids, knobs for the course setter, speed. Acting on them, we give commands to the autopilot to control the aircraft

Photo: Maxim Avdeev, Vasily Kuznetsov