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  • Navigating
    at Sea
    • Challenges of Sea Navigation
    • Navigating Without a Clock
    • The Longitude Problem
    • The U.S. Goes to Sea
    • Navigate at Sea! Activity
  • Navigating
    in the Air
    • Challenges of Air Navigation
    • Early Air Navigators
    • Navigation at War
    • Navigate the Skies! Activity
  • Navigating
    in Space
    • Challenges of Space Navigation
    • Reaching for the Moon
    • Navigating in Deep Space
    • Navigate in Space! Activity
  • Satellite Navigation
    • Challenges of Satellite Navigation
    • Reliable Global Navigation
    • Global Positioning System (GPS)
    • Who Uses Satellite Navigation
  • Navigation
    for Everyone
    • Meet a Professional Navigator
    • Personal Navigation Stories
  • Timeline of Innovation
  • Artifacts
  • Learning Resources
  • Multimedia Gallery
  • Research
  • Visit the Exhibition

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Time and Navigation
The untold story of getting from here to there.
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  • Navigating at Sea
  • Navigating in the Air
  • Navigating in Space
  • Satellite Navigation
  • Navigation for Everyone
  • Timeline of Innovation
  • Artifacts
  • Learning Resources
  • Multimedia Gallery
  • Research Journal
  • Visit the Exhibition
  • Challenges of Air Navigation
    • Flying Boats Cross the Seas
    • Overcoming the Challenges
      • Celestial Navigation
      • Radio Navigation
      • Dead Reckoning
    • Navigate the Skies! Activity
  • Early Air Navigators
    • Dying to Set Records
    • Charles Lindbergh's Calculated Risk
    • The Business of Air Navigation
      • The Teacher: P. V. H. Weems
      • The Air Navigation Community
      • Radio Time for Aviation
    • Lindbergh's New Tools
    • Two Men in a Hurry
      • The Winnie Mae
      • Meet the Navigator: Harold Gatty
    • Navigation Gone Wrong: Amelia Earhart
  • Navigation at War
    • The Wartime Navigator
      • Harry Crosby
      • Tools of the Trade
    • Naval Aviation
      • Meet the Navigators: WAVES
    • A New Era in Time and Navigation
      • Hyperbolic Systems
      • LORAN
      • Meet the Clockmaker: Alfred Loomis
  • Navigate the Skies! Activity

Explore More

Arturo Ferranin, Italy »
Armeno Lotti, France »
Captain Alessandro Miglia, Italy »
FM-1 Wildcat Cockpit with Deployed Mark 3 Plotting Board »
Westport Radio Compass Receiver »
Meet The Navigator

Harold Gatty

Described by Charles Lindbergh as the “Prince of Navigators,” Harold Gatty was one of the first professional air navigators in the United States

Wiley Post, with Harold Gatty as navigator, circled the world in 1931, shattering previous records. Their plane, the Winnie Mae, served as a flying laboratory for many new technologies, including the new Weems System of Navigation.

Gatty became chief navigation engineer for the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1932, as it was starting to develop strategies for long-range navigation.

After returning to his native Australia, he continued to provide invaluable service by helping develop air resupply routes in the South Pacific and helping create the U.S. Navy’s navigation handbook for survivors adrift at sea on rafts.

Gatty received the Distinguished Flying Cross from President Herbert Hoover at the White House for “his intrepid courage, remarkable endurance, and matchless skill materially advancing the science of aerial navigation.” This was an exceptional honor for a noncitizen. Hoover offered to push special legislation to grant U.S. citizenship to Tasmanian-born Gatty, but he refused the offer.

“[Harold Gatty] is the only back seat driver that ever made good.” 

— Will Rogers

336-gatty_recieves_the_dsc_-_roger_connor_image.jpg

Harold Gatty Receives the Distinguished Flying Cross
Presented by President Herbert Hoover at the White House on August 18, 1932.
Credit: United Press International

336-portrait-of-harold-gatty.jpg

Harold Gatty
Developed navigation tools, trained distance fliers in air navigation, and advised the Army Air Corps
Credit: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

post_and_gatty_drive_to_city_hall_-_new_york_parade_-_pathe_578.21.mp4

"Post and Gatty Drive to City Hall" [Run Time 1:11]
New York parade
Credit: WPA Film Library
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  • Navigating at Sea
    • Challenges of Sea Navigation
    • Navigating Without a Clock
    • The Longitude Problem
    • The U.S. Goes to Sea
    • Navigate at Sea! Activity
  • Navigating in the Air
    • Challenges of Air Navigation
    • Early Air Navigators
      • Dying to Set Records
      • Charles Lindbergh's Calculated Risk
      • The Business of Air Navigation
      • Lindbergh's New Tools
      • Two Men in a Hurry
        • The Winnie Mae
        • Meet the Navigator: Harold Gatty
      • Navigation Gone Wrong: Amelia Earhart
    • Navigation at War
    • Navigate the Skies! Activity
  • Navigating in Space
    • Challenges of Space Navigation
    • Reaching for the Moon
    • Navigating in Deep Space
    • Navigate in Space! Activity
  • Satellite Navigation
    • Challenges of Satellite Navigation
    • Reliable Global Navigation
    • Global Positioning System (GPS)
    • Who Uses Satellite Navigation
  • Navigation for Everyone
    • Meet a Professional Navigator
    • Personal Navigation Stories
  • Timeline of Innovation
  • Artifacts
  • Learning Resources
  • Multimedia Gallery
  • Research
  • Visit the Exhibition
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  • Privacy
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