Reader,
The French did their best with the decimalised compass, with 400 gradians in the circle. Gradian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Well I'll be blowed. I will try to keep this long story short. We were in Bahrain, Christmas of GW1 and no prospect of going home. Two Ground Engineers with an SF crew and we all decided to buy each other Christmas presents. The Fishnet stockings suited the captain fine, but I found in the souk a funny little device, a compass, with what I took to be 400 degrees on it (I always thought it had a Muslim influence). This was my present to our Nav, who I believe still has it today. Funnily, he was taken aback when informed the aircraft compass managed with only 360 degrees
Your post has just cleared up a 23 year old conundrum for all involved. Thank you, sorry to divert, and back to 1940s training, and America in particular.
Smudge