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A 1958 issue of the Strategic Air Command magazine, Combat Crew, has an
article on high latitude navigation:


https://books.google.com/books?id=JIRZn-7u2aIC&newbks=0&dq=intitle%3Acombat%20intitle%3Acrew&pg=RA9-PA26#v=onepage&q&f=false

It mentions the Kearfott N-1 compass. The system was still in use in the
1990s. I encountered it on a C-135. For a while there was doubt that the
N-1 was working correctly, and there was talk of a compass swing.
Fortunately it was not necessary, since the procedure is far more
complex that swinging a light plane.

https://compassandgyros.tpub.com/TM-11-4920-292-15/

I have heard of pilots doing an airborne swing of the standby compass.
With a brass screwdriver they adjusted to remove most of the error, then
filled in the deviation correction table with reference to mag heading
derived from the INS. Of course this can be no better than the system's
internal mag variation table. But that didn't matter since in military
planes the standby compass is for emergencies only.

There are quite a few other interesting articles in that 1958 magazine.
In that year the B-36 was in its last year of service but still had the
power to surprise. During takeoff one B-36 developed a mind of its own.
The nose rose prematurely and the pilots could not get it down. The B-36
staggered into the air extremely nose high and slow. The pilots forced
the control columns forward with their feet. They felt something snap
and regained control of the giant bomber. Control was lost again during
the landing flare, but a quick application of trim got the B-36 down
safely. The problem was a failed elevator bearing support.


https://books.google.com/books?id=JIRZn-7u2aIC&newbks=0&dq=intitle%3Acombat%20intitle%3Acrew&pg=RA9-PA19#v=onepage&q&f=false

The lives of all aboard may have been saved by a peculiarity of the B-36
pusher propeller design. The flight manual says, "Propeller induced air
flow maintains smooth flow over the center section of the wing well
beyond the angle at which a stall would normally occur. This extreme
nose-high attitude combined with very low air speed is another stall
warning."

In the B-47 there was a sextant port in the canopy over the rear seat
pilot. In the B-52 it was behind the pilots, but to save the navigator
from climbing up from the lower deck the electronic countermeasures man
(who sat at the rear of the upper deck) handled the sextant.
Observations were coordinated via interphone with the nav, who gave
precomputed azimuth and altitude for each body. But instead of azimuth,
the polar navigation article recommends relative bearing because that
eliminates manipulation of the sextant mount azimuth crank.

In the last two B-52 versions, the B-52G and H, the tail gunner station
was relocated to the forward compartment, beside the ECM operator, and
the gunner did the sextant observations.

The B-36 originally had an astrodome behind the pilot seats, but in
later years the dome was often replaced by a flat panel and periscopic
sextant port.

--
Paul Hirose
sofajpl.com

   

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