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Can autopilot land a plane

Updated: 9/11/2023
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14y ago

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It depends upon the equipment installed in the aircraft and at the airport. In order for an autopilot to actually land the plane, without pilot assistance, both the aircraft and the ground equipment must be equipped with and certified for Instrument Landing System (ILS). The ILS ground system transmits two directional signals - the localizer and the glideslope. The ILS equipped aircraft uses the localizer signal to align the aircraft with the runway, and it uses the glideslope signal to position the aircraft at the correct altitude and rate of descent. The localizer and glideslope together enable the aircraft to land the aircraft at the desired touchdown zone on the runway.

There are several different categories of ILS: I, II, and III. A Category I (or CAT I) ILS approach will automatically guide the airplane to a height of 200 feet, at which point the pilot must be able to see the runway in order to then land the plane. This altitude of 200 feet is called the Decision Height (DH) - it is the height at which the pilot must decide whether to land the plane or go around due to insufficient visibility. In a CAT I approach, the pilot is also required to be able to see at least 2,625 feet down the runway, called the Runway Visual Range (RVR). A pilot must obtain permission from the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) before attempting an ILS approach of any kind. If the Runway Visual Range is below the required value, the ATC will not allow the pilot to attempt an ILS approach.

The list below identifies the Decision Heights and Runway Visual Ranges permitted for the various ILS categories. All values are in feet.

  • CAT I: DH = 200, RVR = 2,625
  • CAT II: DH = 100, RVR = 984 (except CAT II D, RVR = 1,148)
  • CAT III A: DH = 0, RVR = 656
  • CAT III B: DH = 0, RVR = 246
  • CAT III C: DH = 0, RVR = 0

In CAT III C, the plane can theoretically land with zero visibility - that is, the plane touches down and steers down the runway automatically, even though the pilots cannot see anything beyond the aircraft windows. In reality, no ATC permits CAT III C landings except in emergencies, because zero visibility also means the pilots cannot see the taxi ramps or the signs. The pilots would have to bring the airplane to a full stop on the runway, and wait for the visibility to improve before taxiing off the runway and finding the gate.

Each runway requires its own ILS ground equipment. In this context, one (1) runway means landing in just one direction. If the airport is to support an ILS approach from both ends of the same runway, that is really two (2) different runways, and the airport requires separate ILS ground equipment for each end of the runway. In general, the higher the ILS category, the more expensive it is to install and maintain the ILS system. For this reason, most major airports have one or more CAT II runways. CAT III runways are usually only installed in major, high traffic airports, and even there, only on one or two runways at each airport.

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