Inertial System Capabilities Applied to SST Operation

Abstract

the federal aviation agency in cooperation with Pan American World Airways, and Litton Systems, Inc., Woodland Hills, California, during long range civil jet operations in 1963 sponsored a preliminary flight evaluation of an inertial navigator. A Litton Systems production inertial equipment now widely used in short range tactical F-104G aircraft was modified by the manufacturer for use in the evaluation program. Pan Am operated the equipment on board a DC-8 jetliner during its normal passenger schedule and used skilled observers to record the inertial system performance. The inertial system demonstrated its feasibility as a precise long distance navigation aid in more than 400 hours of operation, the majority of which were performed over the North Atlantic routes. However, new system designs incorporating improvements in reliability and maintainability performance will make the inertial system more practical for economic commercial airline operation. These designs appear imminent and because of the encouraging preliminary results a second more detailed flight test phase is planned to evaluate the capability of the inertial navigator to automatically steer the jet aircraft within prescribed track tolerances. The initial results indicate that the use of an inertial system as the primary navigation system for the Supersonic Transport is highly promising.