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Former military aerospace engineer here. In my opinion it would only be worth it on long range strategic bombers such as the B-52. Fighters don't have the legs
by nvy 3y ago
Former military aerospace engineer here. In my opinion it would only be worth it on long range strategic bombers such as the B-52.
Fighters don't have the legs to fly far enough that celestial navigation becomes worth the added complexity.
For other air mobility platforms like the C-130 or C-17 in my experience they do not include these features, as GPS, INS, and regular old "ask ATC for a vector" are usually good enough.
There are ongoing experiments with magnetic and other forms of navigation, some of which are classified, but I'm a civilian now so I don't know any specifics.
- fellowniusmonk 3y agoIs one of them dead reckoning using polarized light the way bees do?
- nvy 3y agoDead reckoning using the pilot's ego as a guide.
- taway_6PplYu5 3y agoKnew an old guy who was a navigator in C-130's back in the late 1960s. He used celestial navigation. You are probably right that this went away sometime in the 1970s. Damn, now I'm feeling old. I miss the stars.
- nvy 3y agoYour friend probably looked out the skylight and actually oriented himself on the stars' positions. I'm saying something different, which is that unlike the SR-71, the C-130 didn't and doesn't have an instrument that scans the sky and automatically determines where it is based on the constellations it can see.