A Change in Man's Ability to Navigate During the 1990's

William S. Arnott

Abstract:	I write this fifty-year observation as one ancient airman's view of man's universal quest to navigate under all weather conditions, day and night, with accuracy and efficiency. Man has struggled through the centuries to travel from one spot on the earth to some distant destination. The mariner was the leader in developing new navigational equipment, such as the astrolab, sextant, astronomical tables, maps and time pieces. The author also notes that a good navigator remains at his station, stays off the booze bottle, and pays attention to his navigational charts, if he wants to keep his millions of dollars of responsibility off the chartered reefs. Starting in the 1940's, the aviator pushed his way into the development act with great enthusiasm. He found himself trying to locate some tiny island in the Mid-Pacific when he had limited fuel and no alternatives. His answer to navigation had to come quickly and accurately. It was during this same era that the militaries and corporations of the world started developing navigational beacons, Loran A, Decca, fancy gyro-stabilized driftmeters and more accurate instruments to make celestial measurements. Bubble octants, with averaging devices for the celestial shots, became standard equipment. Long-range communications with HF equipment were updated with the improvement of "single-side band" techniques.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1989) June 27 - 29, 1989 Alexandria, VA
Pages:	77 - 78
Cite this article:	Arnott, William S., "A Change in Man's Ability to Navigate During the 1990's," Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1989), Alexandria, VA, June 1989, pp. 77-78.
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