NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Pike
Date: 2022 May 10, 14:53 -0700
I have today read an article in the latest RAF Historical Society Journal on the RAF’s participation in the late 50s U2 flying programme. The article stated that the Pilot Groundschool included the study of Celestial Navigation, that of the few navaids in the aircraft there was a high magnification drift sight, which at the flick of as switch became a sextant; and that delays due to bad weather mucked up celestial pre-computation. All this came after stating that the U2 was so demanding to fly, because there were only 10 kts (20 over the ground I suppose) between maximum Mach No and stalling IAS. Celestial in a single crew aircraft with a not particularly brilliant autopilot doesn’t sound feasible to me. Can any NavLister provide further information?
