NavList:

Frank Reed you commented about "Celestial Navigation: Prepared For Aircraft Flight Crews" by Elbert F. Blackburn .  I was tempted to write something about this book myself, but with no text available except at great expense I was reluctant to comment without seeing what the good Mr Blackburn had written.   I’d imagined it would mirror some of the 1920s and early 30s books by academics or marine navigators turned air navigation instructors such as Weems.  It might even have included sections from Dickie Richardsons 1941 edition of AP1234 “Air Navigation”  which was eventually copied worldwide. 

However, I chanced to look at the single review of the Amazon copy which read “I was hoping this was the "Air Navigation" text by the same author, but unfortunately it's not. However, the book is good in its own right. "Blackie" Blackburn was Pan Am's best navigation instructor. If you want to understand celestial navigation, this is an excellent introduction.”, so perhaps it’s worth a look.  Nevertheless, I suspect it’ll be very much aimed at the sort of airline navigation described in Ernest  K Gann’s ‘Fate is the hunter’, especially the chap who claimed to be experienced but when tested took the whole flight calculating a single fix.

R William McAllister.  Do you have this book?  Please will you tell us a bit more about it and possibly provide a photograph of some of the inside?  DaveP