Abstract
THIS book provides an interesting and sound introduction to the subject of finding one's way in the air. In many ways the investigation of methods of air navigation is based on nautical experience, but the author points out that the reverse process is beginning to apply. The chief differences appear to arise from the greater speed of aircraft as compared with the steamship, and the considerable altitudes above sea-level reached by the aeroplane and airship. Height in itself gives a wider range of vision, and in clear weather allows a greater jpermissible error in dead-reckoning without loss of port than is required for a ship seeking harbour. These points are clearly brought out in the little book under notice, and the various steps involved, both of observation and calculation, are developed simply. Whilst non-mathematical in character, we suggest that “Air Navigation” would provide a suitable starting-point for the more complex studies of advanced works and, what is perhaps more important in the present state of aeronautics, encourage capable students to extend the subject into regions yet unexplored. The main ideas of navigation are illustrated by examples from the great flights of the post-war period—Atlantic and Australasian. The correction for wind for aircraft is more important than that for tide and steamship, and clouds interfere with surface observations to an undesirable extent. Such difficulties, at any rate near land, will be countered by the use of direction-finding wireless telegraphy, a subject dealt with in one of the chapters of the book, which may be recommended as covering the essentials of present-day knowledge.
A Primer of Air Navigation
H. E.
Wimperis
By. Pp. xiv + 128. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1920.) Price 8s. 6d. net.
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A Primer of Air Navigation . Nature 106, 240 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/106240b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/106240b0