"The Army Air Forces was stressing celestial navigation and crews were able to make the Atlantic crossing better than I did, but in our supply shop, octants began to pile up as new navigators realized they could not be used on missions and they got in the way in the barracks.
In Germany and France the Germans changed their transmitters irregularly, and we could never depend on a radio fix. During much of our flying we were over the clouds. . . . With pilots having to jiggle their airspeed and headings to keep in formation, the navigator could not dead reckon."
Caption:
Like most air navigators, Crosby saw celestial navigation as the high point of their art. But, in the European theater, most navigators relied mainly on radio and dead reckoning navigation.
Type: Illustration
Image Date: February 1, 1945
Credit: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Like most air navigators, Crosby saw celestial navigation as the high point of their art. But, in the European theater, most navigators relied mainly on radio and dead reckoning navigation.
