Picture of the day

I guess gps was a few decades off back then - their only means of navigation was to pull out a ###tant & start making measurements during the long arctic/antarctic nights. I don't know what they would do in the day - maybe they used a polarizing filter or something like that. The fly boys call them an asto compass.

Here is a research paper on the NG5 intertial navigation system on the B52 used in association with the Hound Dog cruise missile. A few years ago a ytber did a 'teardown' vid of the B52 astro compass.

The research paper (PDF file, download alert!) : https://www.ion.org/museum/files/B-52 and GAM-77 Overview V2.pdf

the youtube vid in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzGaO4Kdz2Y
 
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###tants for day use had a filter or shade.

###tant images and types.

https://www.google.com/search?q=typ...8s7dAhWQL3wKHdprDnAQ_AUIDigB&biw=1920&bih=944
 
fat tony said:
I guess gps was a few decades off back then - their only means of navigation was to pull out a ###tant & start making measurements during the long arctic/antarctic nights. I don't know what they would do in the day - maybe they used a polarizing filter or something like that. The fly boys call them an asto compass.

Here is a research paper on the NG5 intertial navigation system on the B52 used in association with the Hound Dog cruise missile. A few years ago a ytber did a 'teardown' vid of the B52 astro compass.

The research paper (PDF file, download alert!) : https://www.ion.org/museum/files/B-52 and GAM-77 Overview V2.pdf

the youtube vid in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzGaO4Kdz2Y
Click to expand...

pre ‘gps’ we (CF) used an ‘Astrocompass’ ... no filters required, Instead of a magnetic compass. At some point even allowing for magnetic declination was a waste of time as the compass needle would never stop swinging. The astrocompasses I saw all came out of aircraft. Annoying devices.
 
fat tony said:
An American officer wth Norwegian reservists circa 1980s.

View attachment 207762

not my pic hopefully he won't object to posting it here for non commercial educational / historical purposes only

https://www.sofmag.com/why-was-the-norwegian-military-carrying-schmitzer-and-lugers-in-the-1980s/ <original link.
Click to expand...

The Finns were still issued with Lugers when I was in the Middle East in 1979 and the Austrians were using wartime P38s. Small, low budget armies, but if it ain't broke don't fix it.

And who are we to criticize; I carried an Inglis Browning off and on for 32 years. If it was good enough for Dad in 1945, it was good enough for me.;)
 
Korea 1951.
mrfbKLQ.jpg
 
fat tony said:
I guess gps was a few decades off back then - their only means of navigation was to pull out a ###tant & start making measurements during the long arctic/antarctic nights. I don't know what they would do in the day - maybe they used a polarizing filter or something like that. The fly boys call them an asto compass.

Here is a research paper on the NG5 intertial navigation system on the B52 used in association with the Hound Dog cruise missile. A few years ago a ytber did a 'teardown' vid of the B52 astro compass.

The research paper (PDF file, download alert!) : https://www.ion.org/museum/files/B-52 and GAM-77 Overview V2.pdf

the youtube vid in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzGaO4Kdz2Y
Click to expand...

Even Polaris as a guide to north would be useless as the further north you go the more straight up it is.
 
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/...civilian-adventurer-turned-cold-war-navigator

Charles Blair (an American) flies solo from Norway to Alaska. He used devices available to a civilian in the Post WWII era. I do not know if the F51 came equipped with its own astro compass from Uncle Sam contracts. Maybe in the later models? I wonder in those days he must have gotten special clearance from the Russians for skirting their airspace. I had thought he flew to the USSR in his plane but I guess I am wrong.

In the paper I linked to it mentioned integrals were used to guide the Hounddog cruise missile. I am not sure but this principle is probably still a big part of navigation.

Blair was not a newb to flying. I guess he was not a unionist as he taught himself celestial navigation on the job. :p Easy there tiger.
 
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RPFH_BisonSkullPile.jpg


This early American photograph shows two men standing atop a massive mound of bison skulls. The skulls are going to be ground up and turned into fertilizer.
 
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