http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...omputer-hacking.html

Yes Sir ,it's obsolete .....until it's needed !

I love my 45-70

There are many skills that modern society considers obsolete. Indeed, someday society may rue the lack of such "obsolete" skills.

Just like having a compass, if you have a GPS. Always good to have a plan B in case A fails. Always wondered, do the Russians also use the American GPS positioning system ? 4 out of 26 cruise missiles in the wrong country sounds like a major FUBAR.

Grizz

Dad was one of the first 13-14 Army Air Corp. navigators to learn celestial navigation in 1938-1939- 1940 TWA or Pan Am. They then took that skill back to their units to teach the other navigators.

Jim

Whatever happened to inertial navigation?

" I never did understand how I got from one postage stamp sized island to another 1,000 miles apart in the middle of the Pacific " Said one old Army pilot !
But they did !

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
" I never did understand how I got from one postage stamp sized island to another 1,000 miles apart in the middle of the Pacific " Said one old Army pilot !
But they did !

That's why pilots have good navigators.

quote:

Originally posted by Grizzly Adams:
Just like having a compass, if you have a GPS. Always good to have a plan B in case A fails. Always wondered, do the Russians also use the American GPS positioning system ? 4 out of 26 cruise missiles in the wrong country sounds like a major FUBAR.


Grizz

The US GPS system has built in errors just for this type of things.

Its only a major FUBAR if you care.

I learned semaphore but never the use of the sextant.As we all know that knowledge was kept from the crews in the English ships of the line for obvious reasons.As to obsolete;those who know me here know that I build sheet metal vintage replications (with period correct tooling) among other things....Obsolete is only applicable when the next generation ceases to want to learn.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobster:
Whatever happened to inertial navigation?

Inertial navigation is alive and well- just about every large aircraft built since the 1980s uses it in some form or another. The trend as of late is to incorporate the air data computer into the same box as the laser ring gyros. so in Boeing parlance for example the IRU (inertial reference system) is now an "ADIRU" (air data inertial reference unit"). GPS information is also fed into the ADIRU so that it has more info to cross-check to verify position.

Porosonik.

I used a sextant for years to shoot landmarks to relocate underwater pipes.

Dave

Can't speak for the Academy but I know for a fact the ships of the fleet never stopped teaching it. I retired as a Chief Quartermaster and every member of my Nav Team of every ship I ever served on knew how to shoot stars and sunlines and could navigate with them. Matter of fact it was a requirement that the Navy's QMs be able to demonstrate those skill sets.

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...omputer-hacking.html

Yes Sir ,it's obsolete .....until it's needed !

I love my 45-70

GPS has some extrinsic problems as well. There was an effort to to use GPS to land commercial aircraft at Newark for awhile; occasional outages had them puzzled until it came to light that truck thieves were using GPS jammers on I-95 near the airport to keep the trucks from reporting their locations. Besides that, there were people using jammers to keep their wives from finding out where their mistresses lived. Always something...

The GPS in my truck goes crazy going through El Paso, it says I am a mile or so from where I really am.

Mark

I was taught to do an artillery "plot" on a plotting board. Which was, essentially, a wood board, a piece of paper, about two feet by two feet and a steel protractor (sort of looking) device.

And you then worked out all the back angles to give the readings to be set on the guns.

FACE (Field Artillery Computer Equipment) was just, this is 1970s, coming into use.

My friend's son is currently in the Royal Artillery. I was talking to him. He says that nowadays it is all on computer and the "back up" is a second computer.