Capt. P. V. H. Weems and the Transition From Marine to Air Navigation

G. D. Dunlap

Abstract:	Captain P.V.H. Weems was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in the class of 1912 and co-founder of our Institute of Navigation. Already an experienced navigator, he was aboard one of the ships stationed in a line across the Atlantic Ocean for the first successful trans-Atlantic crossing by Navy NC4 aircraft. The ships thus stationed acted as beacons and monitored the progress of the flight. By his own account, this event more than any other, started his lifetime pursuit of developing better methods and instrumentation for long range air navigation. By the time that Lindbergh made his historic flight, Weems reputation in navigation was becoming established. After the return of Lindbergh form Paris the Navy temporarily detached Lt. Comdr. Weems form other duties to teach Lindbergh celestial navigation. After his first retirement in the early 30’s, Weems continued his efforts in his own small business called “The Weems System of Navigation”. Because of this many pilots knew him best for the Weems Plotter, the E6B Computer, his text books on both Marine and Air Navigation and other Piloting and Dead Reckoning instruments. His principal interest and thrust however was always on the improvement of celestial navigation. Then as now this problem involved five elements: observing instruments, time keeping instruments, storage and use of Almanac data, solution of the spherical triangle and plotting or recording of the “fix” or position. The persistent devotion of Capt. Weems to the problem produced outstanding results in all five areas. Capt. Weems worked with Ed Link in this country and with Hughes in England on aircraft bubble sextants. In the field of timing, his Weems Second Setting Watch led the way to the aircraft hack watches of WWII, and to the development of the Lindbergh Hour Angle Watch. He designed the modern almanacs which tabulate Greenwich Hour Angle. For sight reduction his “Line of Position Book” was the first of the so-called short methods. The “Star Altitude Curves” were his proudest achievement and were adopted by the Army Air Corps just prior to WWII. His love of people and the force of his personality, together with his refusal to ever accept the answer “NO” gave us this Grand Old Man of Navigation.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1992) June 29 - 1, 1992 ANA Westin Hotel Dayton, OH
Pages:	443 - 448
Cite this article:	Updated citation: Published in NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation
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