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- DZ203, a Boeing 247 airliner, was among the most important single aircraft used in the development of various airborne radar and blind landing systems. It is particularly notable as the first aircraft to perform a completely automatic approach and landing, in January 1945. The aircraft was originally built in 1933 as construction number 1726 and entered service with United Airlines as NC13344. United later sold off their fleet of 247's, and NC13344 was part of a set of eight that was purchased by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) on 10 August 1940 for light transport duties. NC13344 arrived at RCAF Station Dartmouth in September, where it was registered as RCAF serial number 7655. In August 1940, during the Tizard Mission, the Canadian National Research Council (NRC) was introduced to the British work on radars. The Mission continued on to Washington, DC where the cavity magnetron was revealed and US agreed to build versions of the AI Mk. VIII radar. Their initial SCR-520 sets were too large for British night fighters, so the NRC donated 7655 to the UK for testing these systems. It was sent across the Atlantic in pieces in July 1941 and reassembled and registered as DZ203, flying out of RAF Hurn. It moved to RAF Defford in May 1942, and in July it was declared top secret for tests of a new US X band Air-to-Surface Vessel radar. Declared obsolete on 19 September 1943, DZ203 was instead transferred to the blind landing research team. It underwent a complete rebuild, and on 16 January 1945 performed its first automated landing, following this in February with the world's first completely blind automatic approach and landing. It remained in service with the blind landing unit until 1946 when it was struck from the list, and scrapped in July 1947. (en)
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