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  • Just over a 100 years ago here in Paris two men flew in a bi-plane from Pont de Bezons,

  • a bridge 4.5km that way to this bridge Pont d'Argenteuil.

  • As the plane flew along the River Seine lined with spectators, one pilot put his hands in the air,

  • while the other walked out onto the wing, and yet the plane continued to fly level.

  • It was the first public demonstration of autopilot, an innovation that changed the aviation world forever.

  • In the plane that day were these two men.

  • French mechanic Emil Cachin and American aviation pioneer Lawrence Sperry.

  • Sperry was the son of the famous inventor and entrepreneur Elmer A. Sperry,

  • often referred to as thefather of modern navigation technology.”

  • Elmer Sperry formed eight companies over his lifetime,

  • including an electric, mining machine and fuse wire company.

  • But arguably Sperry's greatest creations were his versions of the gyroscope,

  • turning a children's toy into useable technology to help tackle real-world problems.

  • There was a lot of demand within the maritime industry for an instrument

  • that could replace the unreliable magnetic compass within steel ships.

  • The German inventor Hermann Anschutz-Kaempfe patented the first workable gyro compass in 1908,

  • and Sperry developed his own shortly after.

  • It was the first creation from what was initially called the Sperry Gyroscope Company,

  • his business that grew to become a global technological powerhouse.

  • Over this period, Sperry also developed a gyro pilot system for ship's steering and

  • and built the first full gun battery fire control system.

  • After reportedly suffering from sea sickness on an earlier Atlantic voyage, he also designed

  • a gyroscope that stabilized ships by reducing the roll caused by waves, particularly during rough conditions.

  • However, it was in aviation that Elmer's gyro stabilizer reached new heights.

  • "A great many great men have contributed to aviation purely as specialists, Sperry one of the greatest."

  • In 1914, the world got to see a plane on autopilot for the first time

  • when Laurence showcased his smaller and lighter version of the gyro stabilizer,

  • the original gyroscopic autopilot.

  • While this controlled the surfaces of the aircraft to maintain straight and level flight,

  • the basic principles were the same.

  • Think of a gyroscope as a spinning top.

  • When stationary, it falls over, but when spun at speed, it's able to retain its position.

  • This is known as the conservation of angular momentum.

  • Now imagine the spinning top as a wheel or disc,

  • attached in some cases to many other moving parts such as gimbals.

  • The angular momentum of the spinning rotor causes it to maintain its position

  • even when the gimbal assembly is tilted.

  • The idea of the gyroscopic autopilot is that the three axes of an aircraft, yaw, pitch and roll

  • could be harnessed to the stability of a spinning gyroscope

  • which could maintain an airplane's original orientation.

  • This was done by linking the control surfaces of the aircraft with three gyroscopes

  • that were designed to maintain a zero setting unless the pilot took over the controls.

  • This allowed flight corrections to be introduced based on the angle of deviation

  • between the flight direction and the original gyroscopic settings.

  • To see these gyroscopes in person I've come to Farnborough, a town in the U.K.

  • It's a historic aeronautical science site responsible for the development of equipment

  • such as the first airborne cameras and high-altitude space suits.

  • It also conducted the first carbon fibre experiments.

  • Hi Graham, how's it going?

  • Morning, welcome to FAST.

  • Graham Rood is a retired aviation scientist and engineer who collects and archives aviation gyroscopes.

  • We've got quite a large collection of Gyros over the years.

  • The very early ones were powered by pressured air through there

  • and that spun up the gyro like that at high speed.

  • Once you've set the gyro up in a particular direction, every time there's a movement

  • you can correct it because you can sense the movement with other sensors

  • and the gyro is basically the controlling system.

  • I mean they were fundamental to all flying. Clever man, clever man, good use of technology.

  • Any of these gyros built by the Sperry family?

  • We don't have any in here but we do have some down in the reserve collection.

  • While gyroscopes were Elmer's and Laurence's most successful venture

  • they continued to create a wide variety of equipment and machinery.

  • In total, they held more than 400 patents for new inventions across several different industries.

  • This is the one where we have some of the Sperry work in.

  • We store it all here, everything is numbered.

  • Sperry-made gyros.

  • Wow.

  • And you can see how beautifully made it is.

  • This was probably 60s or 70s, something like that.

  • You see Sperry Gyroscope, these were some of the gyros of the time.

  • Sperry Gyroscope Company.

  • Of course, a lot of people made gyroscopes but Sperry was right at the beginning.

  • So this is artificial horizon.

  • That's where your airplane is, so that's the wings and you can see the horizon moves around.

  • And they always have this lovely little, "Do not jar handle my eggs."

  • That's great.

  • Sadly, Laurence Sperry died in a plane accident in the English Channel in 1923,

  • and his father Elmer passed away seven years later.

  • Their legacy, however, lives on in today's aviation industry.

  • Well, I think for engineers and certainly people who can look back and understand history,

  • they were real giants of aviation and that's how they should be remembered.

  • After their deaths, the Sperry Gyroscope Company became a subsidiary of the new Sperry Corporation.

  • The new company immediately set to work on the development of two flight instruments.

  • These were the Directional Gyro, now known as the Heading Indicator,

  • which tells the pilot the direction the aircraft is heading

  • and the Gyro Horizon, now known as the Artificial Horizon,

  • which informs the pilot of the aircraft's position relative to the earth's horizon.

  • They were tested in 1929 in what was the first recorded flight in history using only instruments.

  • Jimmy Doolittle, in association with the Sperry company, tackled the problem.

  • I made the first blind flight but out of that came two instruments, the artificial horizon and directional gyro

  • that are today standard equipment on every commercial airplane and every combat military airplane.

  • How do you do, Tom?

  • Good, nice to meet you.

  • And you, and you.

  • Paul Heaver is a retired British Airways pilot.

  • His career spanned 44 years and yet gyroscopic instruments

  • were as important on his last flight as they were on his first.

  • It is an essential part of the information that you receive as a pilot

  • on the attitude and the manner in which the airplane is flying.

  • When one starts training in the first place you fly visual flight rules where you're

  • looking out the window most of the time etc, and then you progress to learning how to fly

  • on instruments and so the information that you get provided by gyroscopes, artificial horizons,

  • turn and slips, is critically important.

  • And even today, certainly on the 747-400 there will be stand by instruments.

  • How important was autopilot during your career?

  • I can remember on one occasion, I went to put the autopilot in and we couldn't get the autopilot in.

  • And so we had to hand fly this airplane from Perth to Singapore

  • which was about five and half hours but it was just tedious, it was just boring.

  • So, with an autopilot that's all taken care of and you can just monitor what is actually going on.

  • You don't have to look far to see the impact the Sperrys had on today's aviation and technology industries.

  • The Sperry Corporation has contributed to the development of some of the world's biggest companies.

  • After a series of corporate mergers, Sperry Corporation eventually became a part of

  • the American global IT company, Unisys.

  • Following the merger, some of its former divisions were sold off and have gone on to form parts of

  • Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, United Technologies and finally Northrop Gruman.

  • Last year each company had revenues of more than $30 billion.

  • And the Sperry name continues to live on in the Northrop Grumman-owned company Sperry Marine.

  • It's a global supplier of navigation, communication and automation systems for the marine industry.

  • From shipping to computers, the Sperry Corporation's influence can be felt across multiple industries.

  • But it's in aviation, through the original Sperry Gyroscope Company,

  • that Elmer and his son Laurence left a legacy of invention and engineering

  • that continues to be relevant and effective even in today's digital economy.

  • Hi guys, thanks very much for watching our video.

  • If you want to see more of our content then check out these videos.

  • And we'd love to hear your thoughts on Sperry and gyroscopes,

  • did you know as little as I did before making this video?

  • Comment below the video to let us know and remember, don't forget to suscribe.

Just over a 100 years ago here in Paris two men flew in a bi-plane from Pont de Bezons,

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