For nearly a century, pilots have referred to the autopilot as “George.” The origin is murky, but the most accepted explanation traces back to George DeBeeson, an early autopilot manufacturer whose nameplate appeared on the first widely adopted automatic pilots in the 1930s. Another theory credits British RAF pilots who named their autopilot after King George. Either way, the nickname stuck. By the 1950s, airline pilots were joking that “George is flying the airplane” while they ate lunch. Today, glass cockpits and fly-by-wire systems have replaced mechanical autopilots, but the name endures. The next time you kick on the autopilot, you’re keeping a tradition alive.