NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Dip-meter again
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2012 Apr 10, 14:43 -0400
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2012 Apr 10, 14:43 -0400
Regarding how Polaris subs were navigated and how important an accurate position was, I had forgotten about inertial navigation. I remember now the Navy bragging about it back then. I would suppose a submarine would be ideally suited to inertial nav as turbulence or rough water are non-existent. This is transcribed from: http://books.google.com/books?id=U86giz-cluoC&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&dq=polaris+missile+submarine+navigation&source=bl&ots=uIxv51UZL4&sig=6-SsCKSEbW285VpPfIAyO4iScaQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FnuET_-UOaTk0QGE-427Bw&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=polaris%20missile%20submarine%20navigation&f=false which is the Google books edition of "Cold War Submarines: The Design and Constructions of U.S. and Soviet Submarines." page 122: > As important as the missiles was the development (at an accelerated rate) of the fire control and navigation systems for Polaris submarines. The latter was particularly critical because of the long ranges of the missle and the need for the submarine to remain submerged (except for masts and antennas raised on a periodic basis). Recalling that this was in the period of primitive navigation satellites such as the Transit, the Ships Inertial Navigation System (SINS) developed for the Polaris program was a remarkable technological achievement. Fred Hebard On Apr 10, 2012, at 2:14 PM, Alexandre E Eremenko wrote: > > Richard, > Thanks. > Do you know how accurate it was? > >> The first TRANSIT satellite was launched in 1961. The system was >> declared operational in 1964 and became classified. In 1967 it was >> declassified and became available for civilian use. > > Alex. > > > >