Is there an AP setting that allows the plane to land itself almost.?

Answer 1

There are many airplanes that have autopilots with autoland capabilities out of an ILS. When everything is armed and then engaged it will fly the approach, hands off, down to a nice landing and if the autobrakes are armed it will bring the plane to a full stop pretty much on the centerline. We did it regularly on the Airbus series just to keep FAA certification current. And I've watched it do it with 1/4 mile visibility and blowing snow. Uncanny!

Answer 2

Yes, there is a setting for this on, to my knoweldge anyway, EVERY commercial airliner, the guy who said he was an ATP obviously hasnt ever flown even a regional aircraft because all commercial airliners are required to complete at least one CAT III-ILS approach per month to stay certified... usually tested on a clear day but put to the test for real on a foggy day that gives the pilots no other option... This landing system is so accurate, it is certified to 0-0 visibility... When the pilots are using this, they just let the plane fly itself, some even do the throttle for you too, most of the time however, the pilots will control the throttle... So the answer to your quetion is yes but it would be even more correct if you took the "almost" out of the question...

Answer 3

The Hawker Siddley Trident had a CAT IIIa autoland in the early seventies. The ILS was used down to around 200' agl and then a combination of flight path prediction and radar altimeter finished the landing. It even featured an autoflare feature that flared the aircraft and kicked off any drift for a smooth landing (gone out of fashion with 'thump em in' being the norm these days). As an earlier respondent mentioned, in most cases minimum visibility requirements were to enable the aircraft to exit the runway in the absence of any electronic aids.

At London Heathrow, controllers practiced directing fire appliances around the airport using one of the first ground movement radars, just in case something bad happened.

Answer 4

Even the C141aicraft built in the 60's had an AWLS, All Weather Landing System on it to come in with the ILS, even capable of flaring the aircraft at 60' off the deck. It had no auto-throttle tho, so the pilot had to do the T.R.s and braking.

I don't think we've stood still in that department, do you?

Answer 5

Most modern commercial aircraft have cat III autoland, the limit is that you need to be able to see to taxi off the runway.

I car-pool with a guy who used to work on avionics in the USN on F-14s, he said the autoland on them would put the f-14 on the wires in zero visibility at night and they used it when they were up in the Bering Sea discouraging the Russians from overflying the area.

Answer 6

On some fight planes there is and it uses the Glide-slope to guide itself in and then just landed although it is quite scary

Answer 7

A full ILS approach is used for a 0 - 0 visibility landings and its always accurate. Sometimes try it on the simulators.

Answer 8

Yes it is possible, but your aircraft must be certified for Cat III landing and the airport should also be equipped to permit Cat III landing. U can touch down fully automatically.

Answer 9

Autopilots on today's aircraft can do the approach and bring the aircraft down to a minimum of a 100 ft above the ground on an ILS approach, then the pilot has to touch down manually.

Answer 10

Yes, it's called autoland. A lot of the big jets have this capability, although I have no idea what pilot's think of this and what the airliners policies are regarding it's use.