On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 23:18:15 GMT, Dave Stadt wrote:
"John Carrier" wrote in message
...
"Jim Macklin" wrote in message
news
QLKf.102992$4l5.29962@dukeread05...
AUTOPILOT
Not. Autopilot is great for basic straight and level. Maneuvering for a
building collision would require hand flying the jet.
Not if they were able to put lat. and long. of the WTC into the GPS and have
the autopilot fly to that location.
The Boeing 767s that hit the WTC used an inertial navigation system, not
GPS. INS systems in 1980s-vintage airliners are accurate to within about
1/10th of a nautical mile, or approximately 600 feet. The INS would not be
accurate enough to guarantee that the autopilot could steer the aircraft
into a target about 200 feet wide like one of the WTC towers.
Hand-flying an airliner into a building you can see from 30 miles away
or more (I personally have seen the WTC towers on a clear day from a small
plane flying over northeast Philadelphia) wouldn't be that difficult, though,
so there's no reason to assume that the 9/11 hijackers didn't hand-fly the
planes into their targets.
ljd