Automatic Navigator

What airplane pilots want to know when they cannot see the ground is exactly where they are. They can get this information by various combinations of electronic direction-finding and distance-measuring, as with the U.S. VOR (Very High Frequency Omnirange) and DME

(Distance Measuring Equipment), by cross-bearings on radio compasses, etc. But such operations take a little time and a little room for position-plotting, and the pilot may not have enough of either. Recently the Decca Navigator Co. Ltd. of Britain* demonstrated over Germany a system that tells the pilot where he is all the time) with no effort on his part.

The Decca system uses "master" and "slave stations", which set up a wide-spreading pattern of intersecting waves (see diagram). The pilot pushes a few buttons that activate needles on three dials. Then, by means of other simple controls, he transfers the readings of the hands to a pointer that touches a special chart. Thereafter he need do nothing. The chart and pointer move automatically. By looking at the pointer, he can tell exactly where he is above the terrain represented by the chart. The pointer also traces a line telling where he has been.

During the demonstration in Germany, the Decca Navigator made a strong impression on U.S. pilots who fly the Berlin Corridor, where trigger-happy Russians are apt to fire on straying airplanes. Rivals of Decca point out that it uses long-wave radio waves and is therefore apt to be bothered by static. Decca replies that special static-proof antennas and similar devices have practically licked the static problem.

In Western Europe, the Decca Navigator seems likely to become standard equipment. A set of stations in Britain has been operating successfully for five years, although until recently pilots had to figure out their positions without the aid of the pointer and moving chart. France will have its Decca stations in a month, and both Italy and Spain are dickering for their own installations.

*A subsidiary of Decca Records Co. Ltd.

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