METHODS OF navigation

Learning to fly occupied the minds of men almost from the beginning of recorded history. Legend tells of magic carpets and winged sandals. History brings us stories of flying machines, but man’s first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine was made in 1903.

This flight lasted for 12 seconds and covered a distance over the ground of only 120 feet. This flight was made against wind of 24 mph and was equal to a flight of 540 feet in still air. The maximum altitude attained was 12 feet above the ground.

In the old days pilots listened to the winds in the wires and were happy to fly at any speed. But now a fast flying aircraft pushes through the atmosphere so rapidly that the air can't get out fast enough, because the air is compressed and heated by the compression. At such great speeds it's not so easy as before to pilot the plane, to determine the geographical position and to maintain desired directions to navigate.

Through centuries 4 principal methods of navigation have been developed. They may be briefly described as follows:

1. Pilotage, by which the pilot is directing the aircraft with the reference to visible landmarks.

2. Dead reckoning, by which the distance and direction are determined between two known positions, or in which position is determined from the distance and direction from a known position.

3. Radio navigation, or the determination of position by means ofradio bearings, distances or time intervals.

4. Celestial navigation, in which position is determined by means of sextant observations of the sun, moon, planets, or stars, with exact time of the observations.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-11