The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-05-22

| Onel Smith Is now commander OF
this field and back in the days when
he was preparing for this flight
around the world there were no
such super gadgets as these.
"This is a Link celestial naviga-
ton trainer" the young instructor
explained. In 1t, without leaving the
ground farther than to climb one
fight of winding stairs, young
bomber officers can perfect their
| teamwork in flying on bombing
missions in any one of four ways
by direct observation, by dead reck-
oning over terrain. by radio navi-
CATION, or by celestial navigation
when flying at night.
NO RADIO
NAVIGATION IN "a
When Colonel Smith flew around
the world he didn't fly by night at
all. Radio navigation was non-ex-
istent. All he had to 60 on was di-
rect observation Of the ground, and
dead reckoning-not much more
knowledge Of navigation than it
takes to pilot ship on the ocean
or blaze trail through the woods by
compass. Smith prepared for his
globe girdling by years planning
and study. Six months of it was
study of weather, and nearly four
months of that was study of the
Alaska Aleutians and eastern ST.
berian hops, where the weather was,
and still is, the worst in the world.
Today flyers get their weather by
radio forecast for any place they
want TO go.
Smith had to arrange his own
supply dumps, getting gasoline, oil,
and spare parts spaced around at
proper one-day hop intervals. There
were no air route maps. Smith had
to make his own. All the gadget
aids to fly which are now taken as
matter of course Smith had to
improvise or pioneer, and he had no
Link celestial navigation trainer to
teach his plane crews how to be-
come flying team in couple of
weeks without leaving the ground.
For short course on the Link
navigation trainer you climb the
stairs, then you climb into a tiny
fuselage with space for four men
the pilot, navigator, radio man, and
instructor.
STIMULATES FLYING
CONDITIONS
The fuselage is made so it will
vibrate to simulate the movements
of a plane at any speed through
any atmospheric conditions. When
the crew is seated, lights are put
out. The inside walls of the silo are
painted dead black, so all is now
pitch dark as the inside of the air.
mans proverbial cows stomach.
But as your eyes become accuStom-
ed to the darkness, the instructor
throws a switch and the stars
come on literally Overhead, set in
hemisypherical dome of chicken
wire are tiny electric lights fixed as
the fixed stars are fixed, yet adjust
able so that the heavens over any
location any given time can be ac-
Curately represented. There is the
Big Dipper, the Pole Star Cassie
peia's Chair, Andromeda, and all
the rest of the consultations you
pick out on any starry night.
But now look below. Here on
Keystone shaped movie screen, a
landscape is unfolding. It's in Tech
nicolor, and you make out the bend
of a river, the shape of fields-green
fields. plowed fields, village, roads,
a city. You are now" says the in
structor, flying over the approaches
to Bremen"
The instructor throws another
switch, and clouds cross the land
scape, shutting out part of the
view. Limit cirrus clouds at first,
then heavier nimbus clouds. You're
going to be in for some rough wea-
ther on this flight. They can simu-
late any condition you might men
ton, right here in the silo. If some
body would just shoot $4,000 miles
of movies to run Off on this screen
you could take trip around the
world, bombs included, without
leaving the silo. But what a pity no
one thought to take movies of this
kind before Colonel Smith started
out 10 years ago.