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The reason why aerospace stuff sometimes looks dated is that it goes through an unholy amount of testing -- same for essential nautical equipment. Until a few y
by spiritplumber 12y ago
The reason why aerospace stuff sometimes looks dated is that it goes through an unholy amount of testing -- same for essential nautical equipment. Until a few years ago, you'd get on the bridge of a cargo ship and see these big LORAN navigation units built into the console, usually buried under GPS stuff on a swivel mount... because they liked GPS but wanted to be able to quickly get back to the system they KNEW worked in case the new stuff didn't.
- runjake 12y agoThat and hardware needs to be able to withstand impressive amounts of vibration, environmental conditions, and electromagnetic energy. The latest and greatest ICs typically aren't designed with these in mind, so you're "stuck" with older designs which have been adapted and work well.
- omilu 12y agoMy friend from college was a navigator on a 4 man crew aircraft called the A-6 I believe. Literally his only function in life was to be able to navigate the plane back in case the GPS failed (using maps and a compass and what ever else). So to combat boredom he would take his laptop up on every flight and watch movies and bullshit with the rest of the crew.
- vonmoltke 12y agoThe P-3 Orion has a periscopic sextant for celestial navigation, in case the GPS and inertial nav both fail. Granted, the former wasn't around when the plane was designed, but the Navy keeps them on the aircraft and keeps the navigators trained in their usage. Your friend's bird, particularly if he was in recently, was an EA-6B Prowler, the electronic warfare variant of the A-6.