This Week in History: First automatic aircraft landing
On Aug. 23, 1937, at Wright Field, Ohio, Capt. Carl J. Crane and Capt. George V. Holloman made the first wholly automatic aircraft landing, without intervention from the pilot or from the ground. Crane, who had invented the system, and Holloman, the Fokker C-14 pilot, were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Mackay Trophy for 1937 for the historic flight. Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. was renamed on Jan. 13, 1948, in honor of Col. Holloman, who was killed in a B-17 Flying Fortress crash on Formosa (Taiwan) in 1946.