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Hi Fred:

I have some parts of the MD-1 Automatic Astro Compass system, but so far
have not been able to get the detailed information needed to make the
star tracker operational.  I have some information at:
http://www.pacificsites.com/~brooke/MD1.shtml

As far as I know the MD-1 was only used on the C, D, E and F versions of
the B-52.

Also related to the subject is the shoot down of KAL flight 007.  This
appears to have been caused by the combination of improper use of the
inertial navigation system and the similarity of the resulting course to
ones flown by U.S. electronic intelligence aircraft.  This was the
trigger event that caused the U.S. to open the GPS system to public use.

Have Fun,

Brooke Clarke, N6GCE

--
w/Java http://www.PRC68.com
w/o Java http://www.pacificsites.com/~brooke/PRC68COM.shtml
http://www.precisionclock.com




Fred Hebard wrote:

> I ran into a B-52 pilot who retired in the 80s or thereabouts. The
> conversation turned to navigation without much difficulty; he also was
> qualified in nav.  He mentioned that they had automated star trackers
> for much of their navigation, but that they still carried a hand-held
> bubble sextant, in case the electronics got shot up.  I wonder if that
> is still the case today.
>
> He also mentioned that they could get fixes to within about a mile.  I
> don't know how they assessed the accuracy.  He said it depended
> strongly upon the sextant operator.
>
> Fred
>
>

   

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