Name the basic components of an autopilot system.

Name the basic components of an autopilot system.

• A. Gyros, servos, a controller, and an amplifier or computer
• B. Antenna, transmitter, displays, and sensors
• C. Propellers, rudder, elevator, aileron
• D. Computers, displays, autopilot switch, and battery

Answer: (A)

An autopilot system is built from sensing, deciding, and acting. It needs a way to know the aircraft’s attitude and motion, a brain to compute what to command, and a way to move the surfaces to make those commands happen. The components in the correct answer fit this structure: gyros provide angular rate and attitude information, giving the autopilot its sense of orientation; servos are the actuators that drive the control surfaces to trim or steer the aircraft; a controller processes the sensor data and computes the required control actions; and an amplifier or computer powers and drives the servo outputs, sometimes serving as the same unit as the flight-control computer. The other options miss essential parts. A radio/antenna/display setup describes communications and information displays, not the autopilot’s sensing and actuation loop. The list of propellers and control surfaces are airframe components, not autopilot hardware. The last option mentions computers and displays but omits the critical sensors to determine attitude and the actuators to move control surfaces, so it doesn’t represent a full autopilot system.

An autopilot system is built from sensing, deciding, and acting. It needs a way to know the aircraft’s attitude and motion, a brain to compute what to command, and a way to move the surfaces to make those commands happen. The components in the correct answer fit this structure: gyros provide angular rate and attitude information, giving the autopilot its sense of orientation; servos are the actuators that drive the control surfaces to trim or steer the aircraft; a controller processes the sensor data and computes the required control actions; and an amplifier or computer powers and drives the servo outputs, sometimes serving as the same unit as the flight-control computer.

The other options miss essential parts. A radio/antenna/display setup describes communications and information displays, not the autopilot’s sensing and actuation loop. The list of propellers and control surfaces are airframe components, not autopilot hardware. The last option mentions computers and displays but omits the critical sensors to determine attitude and the actuators to move control surfaces, so it doesn’t represent a full autopilot system.