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The Accuracy of Bubble Sextant Observations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

Extract

The Editor welcomes this opportunity of publishing an account of the valuable and fundamental work done by the Navigation Section of the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down. Some of the results have previously appeared in reports with limited circulation, but no full account has yet been published.

The Navigation Section of Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A. & A.E.E.) had, at the outbreak of war in 1939, only recently been established, and was in the charge of Squadron Leader (later Air Commodore) D. J. Waghorn, who was followed by Wing Commander W. S. Jenkins. Both of these officers were keenly interested in methods of astronomical navigation, and in development work. Professor H. H. Plaskett, F.R.S., Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, was attached to the section, and brought to it an invaluable experience in observational theory and techniques.

The work of the section in the earlier part of the war mirrors exactly the state of knowledge in astronomical methods in navigation at that time. A bubble sextant, the Mk. VIII, had been in use for some time, although knowledge of astronomical methods was limited to comparatively few highly trained members of aircrew. The potentialities of astro-navigation were appreciated, however, and the Mk. IX sextant was being developed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1952

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References

REFERENCES

1Melvill, Jones B. (1939). A Note on Sextant Observations in Flight, Aeronautical Research Council, 3874, N.P.7, February 1939.Google Scholar
2Waghorn, D. J., and Plaskett, H. H. (1940). Errors of Bubble Sextant Observations, Aeronautical Research Council, 4840, N.P.14, December 1940.Google Scholar
3Jenkins, W. S., and Plaskett, H. H. (1942). Personal Equation in Sextant Observations and its Effect on the Accuracy of Astro-Navigation, A. & A.E.E. /Res/172, December 1942.Google Scholar
4Sadler, D. H. (1948). Altitude Corrections for Coriolis and other Accelerations. This Journal, Vol. I, No. 1, p. 22.Google Scholar
5Personal Equation in Sextant Observations’ (1944), a letter dated 10 April 1944 from the Aeronautical Instrument Laboratory U.S.N.A.F. received by A. & A.E.E. through the British Air Commission, Washington.Google Scholar