Blind Landings
When darkness falls, storms rage, fog settles, or lights fail, pilots are forced to make "instrument landings," relying on technology and training to guide them through typically the most dangerous part of any flight. In this original study, Erik M. Conway recounts one of the most important stories...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Johns Hopkins University Press
2022
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| Online Access: | ONIX_20220715_9781421427911_489 |
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| _version_ | 1869529920838828032 |
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| author | Conway, Erik M. |
| author_browse | Conway, Erik M. |
| author_facet | Conway, Erik M. |
| author_sort | Conway, Erik M. |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | When darkness falls, storms rage, fog settles, or lights fail, pilots are forced to make "instrument landings," relying on technology and training to guide them through typically the most dangerous part of any flight. In this original study, Erik M. Conway recounts one of the most important stories in aviation history: the evolution of aircraft landing aids that make landing safe and routine in almost all weather conditions. Discussing technologies such as the Loth leader-cable system, the American National Bureau of Standards system, and, its descendants, the Instrument Landing System, the MIT-Army-Sperry Gyroscope microwave blind landing system, and the MIT Radiation Lab's radar-based Ground Controlled Approach system, Conway interweaves technological change, training innovation, and pilots' experiences to examine the evolution of blind landing technologies. He shows how systems originally intended to produce routine, all-weather blind landings gradually developed into routine instrument-guided approaches. Even so, after two decades of development and experience, pilots still did not want to place the most critical phase of flight, the landing, entirely in technology's invisible hand. By the end of World War II, the very concept of landing blind therefore had disappeared from the trade literature, a victim of human limitations. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-88742 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| publisherStr | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-887422024-04-11T15:10:36Z Blind Landings Conway, Erik M. History of engineering & technology thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues::TBX History of engineering and technology When darkness falls, storms rage, fog settles, or lights fail, pilots are forced to make "instrument landings," relying on technology and training to guide them through typically the most dangerous part of any flight. In this original study, Erik M. Conway recounts one of the most important stories in aviation history: the evolution of aircraft landing aids that make landing safe and routine in almost all weather conditions. Discussing technologies such as the Loth leader-cable system, the American National Bureau of Standards system, and, its descendants, the Instrument Landing System, the MIT-Army-Sperry Gyroscope microwave blind landing system, and the MIT Radiation Lab's radar-based Ground Controlled Approach system, Conway interweaves technological change, training innovation, and pilots' experiences to examine the evolution of blind landing technologies. He shows how systems originally intended to produce routine, all-weather blind landings gradually developed into routine instrument-guided approaches. Even so, after two decades of development and experience, pilots still did not want to place the most critical phase of flight, the landing, entirely in technology's invisible hand. By the end of World War II, the very concept of landing blind therefore had disappeared from the trade literature, a victim of human limitations. 2022-07-15T15:12:39Z 2022-07-15T15:12:39Z 2006 book ONIX_20220715_9781421427911_489 9781421427911 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/88742 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://muse.jhu.edu/book/3283 Johns Hopkins University Press 10.1353/book.3283 10.1353/book.3283 1f9b1002-ec35-4fcf-94be-32cfd0a1dfd3 9781421427911 256 open access |
| spellingShingle | History of engineering & technology thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues::TBX History of engineering and technology Conway, Erik M. Blind Landings |
| title | Blind Landings |
| title_full | Blind Landings |
| title_fullStr | Blind Landings |
| title_full_unstemmed | Blind Landings |
| title_short | Blind Landings |
| title_sort | blind landings |
| topic | History of engineering & technology thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues::TBX History of engineering and technology |
| topic_facet | History of engineering & technology thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues::TBX History of engineering and technology |
| url | ONIX_20220715_9781421427911_489 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT conwayerikm blindlandings |