automatic pilotn.
/ˌɔːtəˌmatɪk ˈpʌɪlət/, U.S. /ˌɔdəˌmædɪk ˈpaɪlət/, /ˌɔdoʊˌmædɪk ˈpaɪlət/, /ˌɑdəˌmædɪk ˈpaɪlət/, /ˌɑdoʊˌmædɪk ˈpaɪlət/ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessels with other specific uses > [noun] > other vessels marking danger
bar-boat1857
bell-boat1858
automatic pilot1897
1897 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Apr. 88/2 Another contrivance for preventing collisions or giving notice of the nearness of icebergs or derelicts impresses me. This is 'the automatic pilot', a small cigar-shaped copper vessel some fifteen feet long and twenty-four inches at its greatest diameter, having within it an electric motor which drives a screw-propeller at its end.
2.
a. A device for controlling an aircraft and maintaining a set course without the intervention of the pilot. Cf. autopilot n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > air or space travel > a means of conveyance through the air > aeroplane > parts of aircraft > controls and instruments > [noun] > navigational instrument > automatic pilot
automatic pilot1916
autopilot1917
gyro-pilot1923
George1931
astronavigator1933
fly-by-wire1960
1916 Aeronautics 13 Sept. 175 The Sperry automatic pilot.
1921 Aeronautics 3 Feb. 76/2 The automatic pilot..enables the pilot of an aeroplane to leave the machine entirely to its own devices.
1944 ‘N. Shute’ Pastoral iv. 91 Marshall sat motionless at the controls, flying upon the automatic pilot.
1970 L. Deighton Bomber (1972) xx. 282 Now he trimmed the controls so that the plane was flying ‘hands off’ and turned on the automatic pilot.
2002 Oldie June 40/1 I could engage the automatic pilot to maintain a steady rate of climb.
b. A device for automatically keeping a boat or ship on a fixed heading or preset course. Cf. automatic helmsman n. at automatic adj. and n. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > steering equipment > [noun] > helm > automatic steering devices
automatic helmsman1895
iron mike1923
automatic pilot1928
metal Mike1929
1928 Sci. News-let. 13 212/2 Many modern ships are equipped with the automatic pilot.
1957 M. Sharcott Troller's Holiday 169 As the automatic pilot, otherwise known as the ‘iron mike’, was steering the boat, it, too, was damaged.
1997 Classic Boat May 67/1 Slocum relied on judicious sail-setting to keep his little sloop holding a course without a hand on the tiller, but the modern equivalent of Columbus's steersman must be the small yacht automatic pilot.
2009 Midland Free Press (Ont.) (Nexis) 9 Sept. (Editorial section) a4 Leaving a keel boat on automatic pilot..is more dangerous..than sitting in a dinghy watching what is going on around you.
3. figurative. The state of functioning without active or conscious intervention or control, esp. as a result of habit or routine; the ability to do this. Chiefly in on automatic pilot.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > [noun] > independent or spontaneous
spontaneousnessa1649
auturgy1651
automatism1794
automatic pilot1955
1955 Chicago Sunday Tribune 30 Jan. (Mag.) 35/1 Accept the invitations to social gatherings... Before you know it, you will be socially ‘off the ground’, with your vacation fun on ‘automatic pilot’.
1975 Newsweek (Nexis) 1 Sept. (Arts section) 61 As a Royal Canadian mountie, Segal has his talent on automatic pilot.
1981 Cook's Mag. Jan. (verso front cover) (advt.) Once you insert the meat probe, the oven is on ‘automatic pilot’.
1993 M. Atwood Robber Bride ix. 63 She's having the grated carrot and cottage cheese salad, a wise choice; not that she can remember having ordered it, but sometimes it's useful to have an automatic pilot like that, to take care of the routines.
2001 N.Y. Times 5 June b7/2 The reader's suspicions that the talented Mr. Lodge has written this book on automatic pilot only grow in the novel's final pages, which feature a host of highly improbable developments.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.1897