Why is the autopilot called "George?"
The first "practical" autopilot was invented by George DeBeeson (the patent can be found here, updated here) - This seems to be the most likely reason for the informal name "George" for the autopilot system on aircraft.

Autopilots are also sometimes called "Otto" (as in Otto the Autopilot from Airplane!, and our very own chat bot, but this seems to be less common than "George".