Thurlow Navigation Award for 1948 : Mr. D. H. Sadler

Abstract

THE Thurlow Navigation Award of the United States Institute of Navigation was founded in 1946 by Mr. Sherman Fairchild (president of the Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation, Inc.) in memory of the famous air navigator Colonel Thomas L. Thurlow, who was killed in an air accident in 1944. The award is made each year to the person who, in the opinion of a representativo selection committee, contributes most to the science of navigation. The first award, in 1946, for the year 1945 was made to Wing-Commander K. C. Maclure, who was navigator of Aries on its flights to the north magnetic and geographical poles. That for 1946 was made to John A. Pierce, the originator of the Loran system of radio hyperbolic navigation, and that for 1947 to Dr. John C. Bellamy, inventor of the Bellamy drift indicator. The award for 1948 has been made to Mr. Donald' H. Sadler, superintendent of H.M. Nautical Almanac Office, in recognition of the work of the Office in the field of air navigation, particularly the production for the Royal Air Force of the "Air Almanac" and the "Astronomical Navigation Tables". More recently, the Office, which is part of the Royal Observatory, has been completely redesigning the "Abridged Nautical Almanac", so as to tabulate Greenwich hour angle instead of Right Ascension, and the new form will simplify the sea navigator's task. Because the new methods involve change of syllabus at the navigation schools and other changes, the introduction of the "Almanac" will be deferred until the year 1952. Mr. Sadler joined the Nautical Almanac Office in 1930, after doing research at the University of Cambridge, and was promoted to the post of superintendent in 1936. He was secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society during 1939–47 and vice-president in 1947–48. He played a large part in the formation of the [British] Institute of Navigation.