1/10/2024 0 Comments German ww2 air navigation toolsLater updates and improvements led to the use of the ADF (Automatic Direction Finding) systems where the bearing to a Non-Directional Beacon or NDB could be presented to the navigator and pilot simultaneously on a radio compass dial, either alongside a magnetic compass or on a single dial of a dual read-out magnetic/radio compass design.Ī similar reverse method could also be used where the aircraft could transmit a signal and two or more ground receiving stations could then take a bearing which could then be combined to provide a position. Coupled with a fixed aerial on the aircraft a bearing was able to be taken on known broadcast transmitters and a fix could then be plotted on a map in the usual way. Radio had been quite widely used for direction finding by shipping for some time but until successful airborne tests off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia in 1920 the size of the equipment was thought to be unsuitable for airborne use so it was redesigned with a small “loop” aerial fitted usually to the top of the fuselage, often in a streamlined shaped pod which could be turned either by hand or motor driven by the navigator or the wireless operator and the signal was then fed to the main aircraft radio receiver rather than a dedicated unit. ![]() The maritime method of determining ones position often used the system of taking a fix measuring with a compass the angle to two or more visible fixed points such as headlands, lighthouses and so on then plotting those angles on a map where the lines cross should be your position, however this isn’t possible from an aircraft way out over the North Sea. Many bombs fell up to five miles from the target. The skill of the navigator was able to get the bomber into the vicinity of the target, but spot-on bombing was still more down to luck than good navigation. Ironically German aircrews paid less attention to air navigation largely because of technology, they were using radio aids to find their way to their targets, although Britain was unaware of the fact at first.Įarly results of RAF bombing raids showed a less than effective accuracy despite the claims of the crews to have bombed on their targets. The next problem found to affect the accuracy of the airborne sextant was often due to air turbulence, so a small clockwork driven mechanical computing device was added which averaged out the effects so all the navigator had to do was keep the star in the bubble for thirty seconds or a minute while the sextant motor did its work. Once it was decided that the RAF bombing offensive should be by night, to avoid the enemy fighter aircraft which were causing such heavy losses on daylight raids, navigators were also trained in astro-navigation steering by the stars.Įarly tests showed that the maritime sextant the device which is used to measure the angle between the horizon and an observable star was totally unsuitable for airborne use, largely because the horizon isn’t always visible due to cloud below the aircraft or hazy conditions, so one of the first advances was to redesign the sextant so that it would make the measurement against an artificial horizon in this case a small bubble floating in a chamber containing alcohol within the body of the sextant. Pilots of single seat fighter aircraft were given some navigation training but since at the start of hostilities they would not be flying far from their home bases and for much of the time they would be flying in daylight, map reading skills and local area familiarisation rather than formal air navigation were seen as more useful, although designs were being investigated for radio aids for use by the single pilot which later resulted in a near automatic system for both bearing and ranging called VHF Omni-directional Ranging or VOR. Navigation skills were seen as essential since it was envisaged that much of the bomber’s war effort would be on the European mainland and that meant crossing the North Sea. It wasn’t always like that, at the start of the war much time and effort was invested by the RAF into training their navigators who themselves were some pretty clever “maths-savvy” individuals. ![]() In our modern world there’s no such job as a navigator on aeroplanes it’s all left to DME (Distance Measuring Equipment), GPS (Global Positioning System) and on-board computing devices to ensure that the aircraft stays on course. And nothing proves the point better than the advances in electronics in both communications and aviation during the Second World War. If as they say necessity is the mother of invention then surely war is its father.
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