Autopilot reducing the pilot's workload. Lawrence Sperry (the son of famous inventor Elmer Sperry) demonstrated it in 1914 at an aviation safety contest held in Paris. At the contest, Sperry demonstrated the credibility of the invention by flying the aircraft with his hands away from the controls and visible to onlookers of the contest. Elmer Sperry Jr., the son of Lawrence Sperry, and Capt Shiras continued work after the war on the same autopilot, and in 1930 they tested a more compact and reliable autopilot which kept a US Army Air Corps aircraft on a true heading and altitude for three
Mile high club Mile high club The mile-high club is slang for the people who have had sexual intercourse on board an aircraft. An alleged explanation for the act is the supposed vibration of the plane, which may lead to sexual arousal among men. Some say they have fantasies about pilots or flight attendants, or a fetish about planes themselves. For others, the appeal of joining the mile-high club is the thrill of doing something taboo and the thrill of the risk of being discovered. An early reference to the concept is found in the betting book for Brooks's, a London gentlemen's club.