Automatic carrier landing systems

One of the more difficult control problems of the aerospace world is that of successfully landing a flying vehicle. This problem is obviously more severe in some branches of the industry than in others, the U. S. Navy being plagued with probably the most difficult landing situation. For example, change the conventional landing field to an aircraft carrier deck, move the carrier through the water at 30 knots, oscillate the deck in three degrees of freedom simultaneously (pitch, roll, and heave), add a black night, and final approach to landing takes on dimensions unknown to most pilots.