The Robot apparatus has been manufactured by a Croydon firm, P. B. Deviator, Ltd. Following satisfactory tests, it has been linked by Marconis with a wireless direction-finder, receiver and "homing" device, thus enabling the aeroplane to be piloted automatically; In calm weather, flying is the most monotonous job imaginable.
But with his Robot assistant, the pilot who takes this particular machine to Australia will be'able to set a course and read a paper, knowing that the Robot will carry him through and overcome snags in the same way as he himself would be able to do.
It is because of this accuracy in keeping a machine to a correct course that it has been nicknamed "The Policeman of the Air."
During fog the automatic pilot will be equally helpful to the human pilot, especially where it is necessary to keep different planes on defined lines of traffic.
The machine for Australia is to be used by a new company there, Air Travel and Survey, Ltd., which is to plot by photographie means the large expanses of unsurveyed territory in the Commonwealth.
"Robot" will see that the course is absolutely correct, and by avoiding overlapping of photographs will ensure an enormous saving in time and expenditure.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.