Couple of question regarding Autoland Operations

[FlapsUp]

Good day gentlemen,

I recently came across this short video, which shows early trials of the automatic landing system
during the 1960's:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/blind-flying

Besides finding it quite interesting to see, it brought up a couple of questions and maybe someone
knowledgeable here can provide some answers.

First the easy ones
1.) The aircraft in the video, is that a Vicker Varsity ?Or another model?
2.) The video descriptions names the shown airfield as Bedford, I m not that familiar yet with british
airfields and my internet search was inconclusive, is this a RAF airbase thats closed nowadays or is that
actually London Luton?Or even another different airport?

I found quite interesting that they used a propeller aircraft (even seems to be piston-engine?) for automatic
landing system trials.In some parts of the video it looks like the throttle levers move on their own so it seems
there is some kind of automatic throttle system (which I imagine to be very complicated on a piston-engine prop).

3.) However I knew only the Short Belfast to be equipped with an automatic landing system.

Thats all for now,

Kind Regards,

Oliver

Are there any other prop-driven aircraft (contemporary or vintage) that were equipped with such a system?

[DaveB]

Hi Oliver and welcome

I'm just on my way out but very quickly.. the aircraft IS a Varsity and Bedford was RAE. The system you know of on the Belfast is (AFAIK) a derivation of the Triplex system fitted to the Tridents

Oh.. and if I'm not mistaken, there's a paint for Rick's Varsity for the Blind landing unit. Will have to go and have a look

ATB
DaveB

[TSR2]

Spot on Dave, the Belfast and Trident used the Triplex system

[cstorey]

RAE Bedford was known in those days as Thurleigh, and was widely used in the late 60s/early 70s by e.g. BOAC for base training. BEA may also have used it but Peter McLeland will be better able to tell you about that

[FlapsUp]

Thank you all for your interesting replies so far! Thats already quite a a bit information . I found out there's even an addon scenery for RAE Bedford over at AVSIM.

Just out of curiousity does anyone here know of another turboprop (or piston-engine for that matter) driven aircraft, that
was / is equipped with an autoland systems besides the Shorts Belfast?

Kind regards,

Oliver

[DaveB]

Hi Oliver

As far as I'm aware.. only the Belfast had the Triplex (Trident) system as far as Brit turboprops go. Can't think of any foreign turboprops (of the day) having a similar design feature but willing to be enlightened

ATB
DaveB

[dfarrow]

Hi guys , F27s and 748s [ budgies ] only had Cat 1[ 200' , 550-600 m. vis ] single channel autopilots .
ATPs and F50s had autopilots capable of Cat 2 [ 100' and 400 m. ] none of previous could autoland .
Not flown 111s , but they could autoland , not sure of limits .
737s .. 200ADV - 3/4/500s could autoland , dual channel a/p , done to Cat3A [ 50' radio ht , 200m. ] 6/7/8/900s will be same or better .
Tridents , triple channel a/ps autoland + auto rollout to Cat3B [12' radio ht 50m.{ 75m in practice to see lights when taxiing clear } ]
744, 757, 767 , autoland + auto rollout Cat3C [ 0' decision ht , 100m ] triple channel a/p.
Tristar autoland + auto rollout Cat3C [ 0' or 12' ? ht , 100m. ] and could do that in 35kt crosswind ! 4 channel a/p .

All of this is subject to Crew quals. ILS serviceability and a ''' Land ''' ILS standard , a/c serviceability , proper spacing on finals .

rgds dave f , apols if any minor inaccuracies , 'twas a long while ago ...