The Development of Long-Range Hyperbolic Navigation in the United States.
Abstract
The paper is derived primarily from the personal recollections of the authors, spanning the entire period in which navigation by the timing of radio signals has developed in this country. If there is a lesson to be learned from this fragmentary history, it is that the pressure of navigational requirements has always demanded more than our knowledge of the facts of radio wave propagation could supply. The systems reviewed have been constructed on the basis of, at best, empirical data or, at worst, guesses. Under these circumstances, new discoveries have, from time to time, brought forth new methods and new systems, while habit has tended to keep the older techniques in operation. These forces provide a partial explanation of a perhaps unfortunate proliferation, some of which might have been avoided had research provided sounder theories and more precise data in advance of the demand for navigation aids having larger service areas and improved accuracy. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0719904
Entities
People
- J. A. Pierce
- R. H. Woodward
Organizations
- Harvard University