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I seem to remember that navigation systems existed during WWII for both taking bearings and computing your actual location, albeit in a wide margin of error. Th

I seem to remember that navigation systems existed during WWII for both taking bearings and computing your actual location, albeit in a wide margin of error. The British apparently jammed some well enough that Nazi pilots just landed somewhere in the Northern part of the UK

Onavo 2y ago
Dead reckoning while flying is hard even today. If you are flying under IMC (instrument meteorological conditions, pilot slang for "bad weather/can't see shit"), you generally have to trust that your meters and instruments are working. Without GPS (or ground based triangulation methods), you generally have to guess where you are. It's very easy to accidentally end up in a small country like Switzerland. If anyone's looking to build a startup in aviation, try building an alternative to pitot tubes. It's pretty much the last remaining vacuum instrument that hasn't been replaced by a solid state/MEMS alternative. And vacuum instruments are about as reliable as Windows Vista.
- pfdietz 2y ago
  > pitot tubes For example, the tragedy of Air France Flight 447. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447 > dead reckoning LORAN was invented in WW2 and was seen then as one of the big advancements of the war. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ObdTU9k7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ObdTU9k7o