Can a commercial airplane land on autopilot?

Question

Can a plane really land using computers and not under a pilot's supervision?

Answer 1

Yes, all new planes are programmed with airport landing strips so can approach and land on their own if ned be.....this is only used in emergency situations or where the visibility is too poor for the pilot to actually see anything!

Answer 2

First: a plane is always under a pilot's supervision, what we are talking about here is intervention, but the pilots always watch their automated systems or they end up as dead ex-pilots.

There are three variations on Cat III autoland:

a: 700 feet RVR (Runway Visual Range) 50 feet decision height
b: 600 feet RVR 50 feet decision height
c: 300 feet RVR 100 feet decision height

Hmm, another reference says IIIc is 0 ceiling and 0 RVR. But that would leave you unable to taxi becuase you couldn't see the runway. See the third reference.

Most, if not all, modern commercial aircraft can autoland, that isn't restricted to the larger aircraft, even small business jets can autoland. The business jet community are actually early adopters of new technology, so they are fitting HUDs and EVS (Enhanced Vision System) while the big boys won't fit EVS for some time.

All Airbus variants have Cat IIIb autoland. I believe all Boeings do too, maybe not some of the oldest 727s and 737s?

In the second link below, search for autoland and you'll see that the comments say this is a B737 panel which had an autoland capable autopilot fitted from 1982.

Since people keep saying no:-

AUTOLAND HAS BEEN COMMON ON COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT FOR 25 YEARS!

Answer 3

Yes airplanes can land themselves...and they routinely do (I'm speaking on behalf of civilian people-carriers).

This is only achievable if the pilot shows the airplane where to go: setting its Navigation Radio-1 (Nav-1) to the frequency of the destination airport's Instrument Landing System (ILS) frequency, so that the system/airplane can "see" the signals -the "Localizer" and "Glideslope"- which represent the runway and where one should land on it.

Also, if one is a navigation-Guru, its possible to actually use the Flight Management System's (FMS) Control Display Unit (CDU) to set an entire course: from ascent -when a pilot hands over to auto pilot- all the way through to the point where the airplane's Nav-1 detects the ILS signal.

When set in such a manner, the airplane will finish -on its own- the ascent, the cruise, up to the end of the descent. And if the end of the descent path is set such that it ends in the area where the ILS signal's beam ends (away from the runway), the only thing the pilot has to do (if its not possible to "slave" the Nav-1 to "see" the ILS via the FMS's CDU in advance) is to press the Auto-Approach switch (ususally labelled: "APR") on the auto-pilot panel when the end of the descent path meets the ILS beam. This will hand over auto-flight from FMS to the auto-pilot panel...and the airplane will simply continue along to the runway.

Before I forget, the pilot will also have to supervise the throttle because as he gets closer to the destination, the airplane will have to be slowed down to lower speeds that allow the flaps to be used (without being compromised by exessive airspeed).

You will notice from what I have just mentioned that there is still substantial input from the pilot thats needed: Manual control of the throttles and flaps (theres no "auto-flaps" to adjust flaps as speeds should be reduced during approaches).

In the end, there is always -albeit reduced- input/supervision from the pilot during auto-cruise or especially auto-landings...no matter how innovative/resourceful the pilot may be with the equipment before him/her. So if you are looking for that "completely hands-free" flight...from takeoff to landing, I'm afraid current technologies haven't quite gotten to that stage yet, but probably will sometime in the future.

Answer 4

Many commercial airliners are equipped with "Autoland" capability, but it's only the larger and more advanced ones like the Boeing 757/767 and the Airbus A320. Also, any aircraft equipped to do a Category IIIc approach (Zero Ceiling, Zero Visibility) will have autoland. This not only requires special certification of the aircraft, but also of the crew to be able to operate the aircraft correctly, and still be in control even when it is on autopilot. These aircraft are equipped with radio altimeters, and announce the aircraft's altitude above the ground at regular intervals.

While many aircrafy CAN land on autopilot, unless there is a good reason to (i.e. weather) they usually are taken off of autopilot around 50-100 feet above the ground so that the pilot can manually flare the aircraft. Besides, most pilots enjoy hand-flying their landings, and take good ones as a source of pride and accomplishment. Rest assured that not even a majority of your airliner landings are done by computer.

Answer 5

Yes of course they can it is called a CAT3A

Answer 6

Following an incident it would be the investigative Authority that would review sscvfdr data. At my place, there are only a couple of managers approved to listen to the cvr due to the freedom of information act. We do however use homp to monitor crew actions, this is reviewed by the homp Department and if there are any exceedance the crew will be notified. This shouldn't be mistaken for something like hums, where Engine exceedances will be reported to the engineering dept. So they may carry out any maintenance action required, although the same information may be available on both systems. But full hums information is not stored on the sscvfdr. The Operator may receive information from the fdr while the aircraft is flying, any spares required can be waiting for it when it lands if there has been a component malfunction.

Answer 7

Yes, in theory, however the pilot should ideally be in the cockpit as auto taxi has yet to be installed and it would look bad if the pilot was sitting in the cocktail bar on the 747 while the co pilot was in the bog regurgitating a avindaloo and a couple of kids were sitting in the cockpit when it auto landed on the northbound carriageway of the M25 instead of at Heathrow

Answer 8

The wingless wonder above has given a load of rubbish above. If Jonny pilot touches the throttles his auto throttle will kick out then the autoland is lost...

To answer the question, not only does the the aircraft land itself in CAT111c it also autobrakes in rollout, the aircraft has software to actually bring it to the gate in autopilot but no airport is equiped yet...

Answer 9

Commercial airplanes mostly land on there own anyway. You still need a pilot there though incase of any problems which can't be seen or dealt with by the computer.

Answer 10

As most people has said the answer is yes. I have actually been on the jump seat in the cockpit during such an event. There is a theory that all that is actually needed in a cockpit nowadays are a man and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog. The dog is there to bite the man if he touches anything.