NavList:

Julian Reinke you asked about primary source material on Air Navigation.

This can be a problem.  Despite so much apparently being available, when you fork out hard cash to get the chance to read into it, many sources turn out to be superficial.  It’s the primary source bit that’s the problem.  What you need is information from the person who did it (or someone very close to them), and ideally what they wrote or drew close to the moment they did it did it.  E.g. I’d trust Weems or Arthur J Hughes (of Hughes Sextants), because they were consulted by many of the fliers both before and after there flights.  Journalists however can be guilty of embellishing an already stirring story to make it read even more exciting.  E.g.  How far out of the cockpit of the Vimy did Arthur Whitten Brown have to climb to attend to the various problems likely to affect the smooth running of the engines. 

Even Navigators, the trustiest of aircrew, age eventually, and memory can become strained.  The exciting bits are always remembered, but memories of the routine bits in between tend to fail us so there is the temptation to improvise.  That’s why paperwork completed at the time things happened is so valuable.  Often of course, the paperwork, the crew, and the aircraft all disappear at the same moment, and theories as to what might have happened perpetuate for decades.  Be aware also that copies of charts might not be might not be exactly what was written in the air.  They might have been simplified for prestation in book or have had more writing added to them after landing.  E.g.  Some of the neat tidy writing on copies of Chichester’s Tasman Sea charts couldn’t possibly have been written in the air in a tiny, not particularly stable biplane flying close to the sea, and Chichester does mention this in his book.

Air Navigation Instruction manuals designed to teach what to do and write in the air are very useful in interpreting the techniques that typical navigators are likely to have been using at the date of the publication, but be aware there have always been more than one way to skin a cat.  Often when logs and charts are provided in such manuals, they tend to be fictitious.  E.g. Did Navigator Plt Off Ivor Brain really fly his trips from RAF Mudbury (AP1234 1941 Edition)? On the other hand many of the logs and charts in Weems (Air Navigation 3rd Edition) and Arthur J Hughes (History of Air Navigation) appear to be very close to copies of the real thing.  Be prepared to be disappointed occasionally when you get your hands on the real thing.  E.g.  Because of the weather conditions, Arthur Whitten Brown’s chart and notebook for the first North Atlantic crossing be an aircraft in 1919 contains only one Sun heading check, one Viga/Polaris fix, and one Sun position line in sixteen hours flying.  The original chart and notebook are held in the archives of the RAF Museum Hendon.  Unfortunately, when MrsP and I arrived to take some photographs, we were late, they were just closing, and consequentially my work was rushed and barely useable. 

To summarise, the best primary source examples of Air Navigation I’ve seen so far are set out below.
‘The Log of HMA R34 to America and Back’  Edward Maitland Available on Kindle
‘Flying The Atlantic in Sixteen Hours’ Arthur Whitten Brown Currently available
‘Alone over the Tasman Sea’ Francis Chichester Available on the likes of Abe Books
‘History of Air Navigation’  Arthur J Hughes Available on the likes of Abe Books
‘AP1234 Air Navigation 1941 Edition’ Dickey Richardson Available regularly on eBay
‘Air Navigation’ Weems Often available on eBay or Abe Books
‘Air Navigation from Balloons to Concorde.  Selected essays from the archives of the Royal Institute of Navigation’ Edited by Walter Blanchard’  Available on Amazon
Theres lots more.  You just have to keep your eyes open, particularly on Veteran’s sites  E.g.  I came across this only the other day https://www.91stbombgroup.com/91st_tales/06_gee_homing_device.pdf
I also attach a copy I typed of a carbon copy of the lecture given by Charles Lindbergh on Air Navigation to the RAF College Cranwell in 1937 currently held in the archives of College Hall Library
If you prefer to watch videos, You might also like to watch these.  They come with an apology for the speaking bit.  They were produced as a webinar spoken to the RIN from home during the early days of ‘Covid lockdown’ as live broadcasts, so there was no chance to change anything.  Then someone decided to put them on You Tube.  No, I didn’t put the ads in, and I didn’t get any commission from the ads either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAS6qEohbvc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gMmu6FMrZs
DaveP