Fifty Years in Aeronautical Navigational Electronics

The state-of-the-art in aircraft operations and in radio technology for the very early period of aeronautical navigation is given, and the technical evolution during the first twenty-five years of IRE is covered. Policy and organizational problems of the transition to the second twenty-five-year period are mentioned. A discussion is given of the World War II system developments, the introduction of pulse techniques and the race toward the microwave portion of the spectrum. This is followed by a discussion of self-contained systems. Illustrations are provided covering some of the more fundamental spatial characteristics of electronic navigation systems.