Can Autopilot Land an Airplane?

Question

Is it possible for an airplane's autopilot system to land the plane by itself?

Answer 1

No, the autopilot system cannot land an airplane by itself. It's essentially a super advanced GPS that maintains the plane's route and altitude but requires human pilots for any complex actions, including landing.

Comments

The majority of modern Airliners can Auto ILS land quite well. It does require the airport to have the required equipment though.

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The autoland system (a landing mode on the autopilot) can actually land the plane on its own

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I may be wrong, most likely but I recall reading where someone said that the autopilot can actually land a plane in the right condition and in fact it help pilots land planes all the time. Now I'm sure it's probably not called autopilot but some other name so not to stress people out.

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An auto pilot can land an airplane my dad is a pilot he told me that he is a pilot for 25 years

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Wow, you have no idea about auto land? It’s on 1970’s technology A300’s. Autopilot can operate very reliable at all altitudes.

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Some modern planes have autoland feature so a passenger may be able able to land a such plane with help from a trained pilot for that plane.

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overall great content but something about the autopilot part isn't right... for example, the pilots can engage the autopilot a few minutes before take-off with the help of the lnav or vnav in the 737. or the ap1 and ap2 in the airbus with the help of the V/S (Vertical Speed)... another mistake that I found in the content is that there actually is an autoland system in the Boeing and Airbus planes as far as I know.

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Actually, in newer models of aircraft, autopilot CAN land the plane, however, in the U.S, at least two crew members have to be in the cockpit at all times, to make sure nothing goes wrong.

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Just want to point out a thing that autopilots can actually land the aircraft safely. In case of low visibility or harsh weather conditions the autopilot is programmed to land the plane safely...just a little harder than usual.

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At some airports the planes can do an auto landing most hard landings are when it is foggy and the pilots can't see they use auto landings.