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If it was remote controlled, how did it survive the 3 hours without contact?



From http://tam.plannet21.com/FAQs.htm#guidance it was a GPS driven autopilot


So it wasn't really a RC plane :-) Very cool stuff.


Well...

Within the colloquial definition, the plane is of a class known as 'RC planes' - it's of a size and general design pattern that is conventionally controlled by a ground based radio pilot, it couldn't be used for carrying passengers, goods or weapons. For very sensible techincal reasons it had to run on autopilot for much of its journey, but the vehicle itself was still undeniably a member of the class colloquially known as 'RC planes'.

By analogy, let's suppose I purchased a retired F1 racing car for whatever purpose. I don't have the entries, licenses and any of a number of other things to enter it into FIA sanctioned F1 races, but does that stop it from being an F1 car while it's not being used for F1 races?


Also, GPS signals are certainly radio waves, so the plane is still literally "radio controlled."


by that metric commercial airliners are not HC (human controlled) planes either as they do >90% of their flying while on autopilot.


It was RC controlled on takeoff and landing, and switched to/from GPS-navigation over the Atlantic.




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