Navigators Dalton Computer.
 

I am currently researching and collecting information on the Dalton Computer for an article I'm writing for (hopefully) publishing in a magazine.
I'm aware that they were used extensively in WW2 in the Mosquito as a friend of mine was an ex-Mosquito Navigator; what other WW2 aircraft used them and has anyone a photo' of a Navigators table with a Dalton on it?

Is this what you what you are looking for?


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fe1bd456b.jpeg

Stirling navigator


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....527034542.jpeg

Wellington navigator


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b7dbddbde.jpeg
Lancaster navigator


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d239b4d4e.jpeg

Armstrong Whitford Whitley navigator

Dalton Computers and their derivatives were being used right into the 1970s on BOAC 707s and VC10s before INS took over.

That's why F/Os always walked with a limp. :O

Mine is about three feet from where I'm sitting. The slide has long gone, but the wheel still serves a purpose. OK, used on flight sim, but still used. Issued 1965 I think.

I have the "box like" one, with a roller blind instead of a plastic slide, as shown in the last but one photograph, ( Lancaster navigator) right here, along with the type issued to me by the RAF in 1955, i.e the "thin" one with the slide, that I have always known as the E6B. That I used on BOAC Stratocruisers, Britannias and early 707's. although in later years the Nav. dept. produced G/S and Drift Component tables for climb, cruise and descent recommended speeds, that were quicker and easier to use than fiddling around drawing on the front of the computer, tho' the reverse side was still necessary for speed/distance/time calculations. ( no electronic computers or iPhones in those days - can you imagine ? !!! )

I also have a small, i.e 2", copy of the reverse side bought as a key ring gimmick some 50 years ago, from a shop on Nathan Rd. Hong Kong, now glued to the inside of my wallet. Was using that at the supermarket checkout one day, and the young assistant said " Wot's that " A circular slide rule, I replied. " Wot's a slide rule ? " One could weep.

My Dalton my 4 (ex the ATC) is still in working order

The pix, above, date back to the original US invention by Philip Dalton in the early 1930s. Later innovations saw the introduction of a much more easily useable slide version. The CR dates back to Siegfried Knemeyer's dreieckrechner, also in the early 30s, but on the other side of the WW2 table.

Am I a dinosaur - I still use my Dalton slide computer regularly ? A lot quicker and easier than the CR for a lot of stuff. With the few which have compressibility corrections included, who needs a CR ? Having said that, I use both.

My father had a Dalton that was fully mechanical. The was a long metal bar that was mounted at the bottom and as you rotated the slide it swung to give you drift and moving it against the speed markings it gave you corrected speed.

Ir disappeared with another handle cranking example shortly before his death.

I still have my 1965 issue Dalton that has seen much use. By far the fastest way to do unit of measurement conversions. I also have (somewhere) a Meer’s slide that was used on the V-Force to ascertain the corrections for speed and heading changes during Astro. There was another Astro related slide as well, iirc used for more esoteric activities such as Polaris homings. In a later life a RN Observer on helicopters showed me a Dalton slide used to calculate the jump distance for active sonar searches.

It was a very versatile piece of kit.

YS

YS

I think it was a Mears slide, pioneered by one Flt Lt Wally Mears.

In the Tac Support airdrop business in the late 60s, we also had a slide for the calculation of Calculated Air Release Points (CARP). I suspect I still have one somewhere.

Dalton Computers
 

Many thanks for your replies and photo's.
I have just been loaned a book printed in 1941 titled Air Navigation; there is a picture in chapter 2 of, and I quote, 'the Circular Slide Rule on the Navigation Computor, Mk 111'.
Having skimmed through the book I'm impressed by the level of knowledge the Navigators had to learn (+ remember!).
This is a photo I can use in my article, however, the photo's posted above; are they protected by copyright?

RogerRB

The photos are indeed probably protected by rights.
I included the links so you can ask permission at the site concerned.

succes SLB

Dalton Computers
 

Thank you; I shall be very careful!!!!

The Dalton Protractor
 

In the last picture the Armstrong Whitford Whitley Navigator on the chart between the Dalton Computer and the Straight Edge is a Dalton Protractor. This very useful tool is not an invention in the 30's by an Ivy League whizz kid but a true British piece of kit invented whilst still a Captain by Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Percy Douglas KCB CMG FRGS FRAS AICE (1 November 1876 – 4 November 1939) a British naval officer who specialised in surveying and was Hydrographer of the Navy.

My neighbour, who was also my instructor when I started flying on the C-141A, was much taken by my Douglas Protractor. So much so that, shortly after starting his South East Asia tour on the AC-130, I got a message asking that I send him one, which I did. I gathered that it was ideal for their nightly work out over the Trail.

And sure enough, I see from its well-used cardboard case that Rear-Admiral Douglas is credited with the design, something I doubt I ever paid any attention to till now! Well done, Sir - it was a super bit of kit.

On offer for 8,95 $.
https://www.starpath.com/catalog/accessories/1852.htm

My RAF computer looks the same as the normal issue model but the slide is only 19 cms., and the disc 9 cm diameter

Would that be of interest to you, or was the small version common?

stairs, slimline model for FJ crews....!