Pilot
In television, a pilot is the first episode of a television series. It is usually longer than normal episodes (often twice the normal length). The pilot is intended to get network programming executives, and later the public, interested in the series, and to set the general background of the story. See television pilot.
In
telecommunication, a
pilot is a
signal, usually a single
frequency, transmitted over a
communications system for supervisory, control, equalization, continuity,
synchronization, or reference purposes.
Note: Sometimes it is necessary to employ several independent pilot frequencies. Most radio relay systems use radio or continuity pilots of their own but transmit also the pilot frequencies belonging to the carrier frequency multiplex system.
Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188
A
pilot is someone who guides ships through the waters near a harbour.
A
pilot is also someone who flies an aircraft, see
Aviator.
Many appliances that use
natural gas as their fuel utilize a
pilot light, which is a small outlet of gas kept continually burning and generally used to light the larger burners on the appliance.
The
Pilot Pen Corporation is a company whose headquarters are situated in
Japan. They are one of the world's major manufacturers of ink-based writing utensils.
In railroading, a
pilot is the device at the front of a locomotive to deflect obstacles (also known as a
cowcatcher); see
pilot (locomotive).
Pilot is the title of a short story in
science fiction author
Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence. Sixth in the anthology
Vacuum Diagrams, it is a revision of a story first published as a chapbook by Novacon in
1993.
Set in A.D. 4874, "Pilot" relates the forced settlement of space pilots on Pluto's moon Charon and their use of their grounded ships' drives to escape the gravitational pull of the solar system.
A
pilot fish is a small fish,
Naucrates ductor, that often swims with sharks.