NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2026 Apr 20, 19:23 -0700
WOW! How complex that system is. O.K. on a B-52 with 8 engines and two navigators. But.....
Two months ago we had a presentation at our aviation group by a pilot of a U-2. He told of many missions behind the Iron Curtain and other hot spots. Cool stories.
After the presentation I asked him how they navigated those flights since the Ruskies wouldn't want him to be using their navigation facilities. "RUSSKIE CONTROL-THIS IS AMERICAN U-2, CAN YOU GIVE VECTORS TO NORWEIGAN AIRSPACE, OVER!"
Not a good idea!
He told me that they used celestial navigation!!!!!!!
WOW!
I asked him if the U-2 had a star tracker and he said "no, no space for one."
"So how did you do it?"
"We took off with precomputed altitudes and azimuths computed for the periods around our expected crossing of our checkpoints. When at the expected times, I took sextant shots and compared them with the precomputed ones. I was never off my more than TEN nautical miles."
Exactly the same technique used back in the 1930's and during WW 2 and commercial trans-oceanic flight until the 1970's. Also used by Fred Noonan on the Earhart flight.
What is old is new again!
GL
