Is integrated INS/FMC/Autopilot that common on older jets?
 

I was looking at some cockpit photographs at airliners.net and wondered what the crews have to work with when they don't have the box of tricks on the pedestal. For instance in some DC-9 and 727 photographs I wasn't able to see anything other than radio-navigation instruments. I got curious and found some stuff about the Litton kit on the classic 747's (to help them on the trans-oceanic journeys) which was interesting reading, but what about those that don't have INS at all?

I actually wondered for a split second "how on earth do they get about? :O" until of course realising that it can't have been that long ago that everybody flew with essentially the same technology as a Cessna 150. Did this make long journeys particularly taxing, and do pilots miss this kind of involvement in the modern aircraft?


P.S. anybody who mentions the ancient navigational art of wehthefeckahwe gets a slap :)

What, you mean as practised by the feckahwe tribe

:}

Ouch

JamesT,

If it's in electronic form, would you mind emailing me the docs you found on the Litton kit?
Thanks

Actually, believe it or not google turned up a review of what (I think) is an addon for a flight sim. Within this, was a fair amount about the Litton thingy. I'll see if I can find it again.

Edit: Here is the review. There are about 500 words about the Litton LTN-72 INS and a nice screencap of it showing the display, rotary switches, and buttons, and some interesting info about the 'eight waypoints' rule.

http://www.avsim.com/pages/0700/toff...re747200.shtml

I followed some of the links and there is a download for a manual (15mb!!) and in all probability there will be a big section on the nav kit, as according to the piece they spent most of their time on that.

Edit2: Now I know the model name, (there is also an LTN-92, apparently. Presumably that looks less like a 1970's Soviet calculator) I've been able to search more, but bizarrely enough, it's all flight-sim stuff. There's bound to be an operators handbook somewhere online...

In the beginning...

There was astro nav, and believe it or not, was surprisingly accurate. (lost a bet with a nav on this and had to buy the whole (FD) crew a dinner on fishermans wharf in SFO (a not inexpensive experience...).

Then along came LORAN (A), quite useful, if you learned to read the screen properly.

Doppler nav followed, Bendix and Marconi provided most of the sets, and was quite accurate, if updates with astro were used.

Along the way was pressure pattern nav, with a high range radio altimeter. Will leave the explanation of this to the navs here, i'm sure there are many who understood this more than yours truly....

Early INS units provided very accurate navigation, with a radial error of half a mile per hour (nav) possible with the Litton and Delco units....

IF maintained properly.

Of course, in the early days, there were Ocean Stations...Coast Guard cutters with 2000 watt LF beacons, steaming in a (broadcast) grid pattern, for positive fixes.

Ah...the good 'ole days, and believe it or not, worked very well.

Ah yes, Fishermans wharf...the navigator (departing HNL) mentioned that he would 'try his best' to get within five miles of BEBOP, then on the 236 radial of Woodside VOR (enroute SFO).
Sun shots the whole way...and we ended up within ONE mile...and it was worth every dime to see the smile on his face.

PS: He was 20 years old at the time, and knew how to navigate....for sure...civvy, NOT military.:ok: