Navigation.On 21 March 1919, a gyrocompass gyrocompass: see gyroscope. developed for the Navy was tested in an aircraft, marking the first recorded instance of tests of a device that would become an invaluable navigational instrument for long-range flight. Development of the Navy's tactical air navigation air navigation, science and technology of determining the position of an aircraft with respect to the surface of the earth and accurately maintaining a desired course (see navigation). Visual and Instrument FlightThe simplest and least sophisticated way to keep track of position, course, and speed is to use pilotage, a method in which landmarks are noted and compared with an aeronautical chart. system (TACAN TACAN - Tactical Air Navigation TACAN - Tactical Airborne Navigation)--comprising a surface beacon and airborne receiver to determine the direction of the aircraft from the surface station--was initiated by a 1948 contract. On 30 August 1956 the Air Coordinating Committee approved a common military-civil short-range air navigation system called VORTAC VORTAC - Very High Frequency Omni-Directional Radio Range Tactical Air Navigation Aid VORTAC - VHF Omnidirectional Range/Tactical Aircraft Control, which combined TACAN with the Civil Aeronautic Authority's very high frequency omnirange direction finder direction finder, electronic device used to determine the position of a ship or aircraft. In a simple direction finder a radio receiver is equipped with a revolving directional antenna. The antenna receives the strongest radio signal when it is pointing directly at a transmitter. By determining the direction of two land-based transmitters, a navigator may plot his position by triangulation.. On 1 January 1943, just nine days after the first successful experimental demonstration of Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) technology, the system was called into emergency use for the first time when a snowstorm closed down the field at NAS Quonset Point Quonset Point (kwŏn`sĭt), peninsula extending into Narragansett Bay, S R.I., in the town of North Kingstown., R.I., shortly before a flight of PBY PBY - US Navy medium to heavy twin amphibious aircraft used for maritime patrol, water bomber, and search and rescue Catalinas was due to arrive. The GCA crew located the incoming aircraft on their search radar and used the control tower as a relay station to "talk" one of them into position for a contact landing. Above, an air traffic controller at NAS Miramar, Calif., demonstrates the military application of GCA, circa 1961. |
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