Air Navigation from Balloons to Concorde

ISBN 1-903953-90-1
Aviation history
  • Description
  • More Details
  • Foreword by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
  • softback
  • 205 x 290 mm
  • 270 pp
  • 240,000 words
  • many b/w illustrations
  • a major work of reference
Walter Blanchard (ed)
A definitive history of air navigation ~ from its primitive beginnings to satellite technology

Early aviators soon discovered that travelling by air posed unique navigational challenges which could not be met entirely by adapting techniques and instruments already developed for navigation at sea.

It became clear that new machinery and methods were needed, and as aircraft technology rapidly evolved throughout the 20th Century, ever more sophisticated solutions were called for, culminating in modern satellite navigation equipment.

The latter development has effectively rendered all previous air navigation methods obsolete, and as a result, the occupation of 'air navigator' has now passed into history... 

Sad though this may be, it presents the opportunity to write a definitive history of the subject.

And nobody could be better qualified to do so than the Royal Institute of Navigation, whose journal has published articles on air navigation since its earliest days.

Drawn from this unique knowledge resource, this book contains contributions from some of the most knowledgeable experts in the world, including pioneers such as Sir Robert Watson-Watt, making it an invaluable and unique reference work.