While celestial navigation left plenty of room for human error, it became a more accurate practice over time, helping pilots take aviation to new heights during everything from the dawn of aviation to the Gemini space missions. The method relied on spherical trigonometry and astronomical know-how, but demanded little in terms of physical equipment, requiring, at the very least, the help of a sextant, an almanac and a timepiece. By measuring the angles between their visual horizon and those celestial bodies above, sailors, landgoers and, eventually, pilots could compare those figures to the known location of those stars, planets or the moon at a given time, and thus deduce their location on Earth. Celestial Navigation For thousands of years, travelers venturing out beyond the realm of identifiable landmarks have called upon the assistance of celestial bodies to help them find their way.
AIR NAVIGATION BONFIRES DECOMMISSIONED FREE
(Photo courtesy of Silvan Smith) Get exclusive online content like this delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for our free enewsletter. But the pilots who flew the route couldn’t have done it without the predominant navigation aid of the day: bonfires tended along the route to guide the airmail planes at night and in low visibility. The stunt succeeded, delivering the mail in an astounding 33 hours and 20 minutes and saving the air service. 4s took off across the country to deliver mail from New York to San Francisco in record time. The federal government was about to scrub the airmail service, prompting the head of the Post Office Air Service, Otto Prager, to stage a dramatic cross-country flight that would impress Congress, the president and the public. Eighteen pilots lost their lives between May 1919 and the end of 1920 flying over the Allegheny Mountains from New York to Chicago. 4s used for such duty were known as “flying coffins” because of their poor safety record.
Bonfires It took remarkable courage to fly the early airmail routes in open biplanes in the years right after World War I. From paper charts to satellites in space, Flying’s Top 50 Navigation Innovations counts down to the single most noteworthy navigation innovation of all time.
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