An Automatic Dead Reckoning Computer

Abstract

Dr. Ramsayer's paper, presented at the tripartite meeting on automatic navigation held in Paris last April, describes a dead-reckoning computer on which position is presented instantaneously on a map.The so called Automatische Koppelkarte has been developed by the Institute of Air Navigation of the Technical University of Stuttgart, and is a new type of dead reckoning computer differing from the usual navigation computers in that position is immediately indicated on a map; there are many possibilities for combining the device with other navigational aids.Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the computer. It consists of the computer, the map display and the course and track indicator. The station selector and the coordinate transformer shown in Fig. 1 are additional units, only used when monitoring by tacan is desired, as will be described. The computer is fed by a gyro-magnetic compass and a true airspeed transmitter. The wind is set at the map display, and ‘grivation’ at the course and track indicator. From these data both the flight path and the track are computed. The flight path is resolved in two rectangular components and is displayed by a light pointer on a map of conformal conical projection. The standard parallels of the map are selected in such a way that the distortion in length is practically negligible for the area of interest.