Word: gyrocompasses
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Like the gyrocompass, the gyroscopic ship stabilizer and the Mark 14 antiaircraft gun sight (developed by Dr. Draper and his associates at M.I.T. in 1941), Inertial Guidance is based on the familiar principle that keeps a child's gyroscopic top from falling: a rapidly spinning wheel will resist forces working to twist it from the plane in which it is revolving. A gyroscope sufficiently free of outside disturbances-e.g., friction-will maintain an unvarying spin axis in relation to the "fixed" stars-or any other points of reference-no matter on what path it is carried...
Each student navigator sits in a booth below the starry sphere. Above his desk are instruments that tell the air speed, altitude, gyrocompass reading and other flight data about the airplane he is supposed to be navigating...
...student knows his take-off point. He knows where his ship is supposed to go, and roughly how fast and in what direction it is flying. His job is to find out, by observation, where it really is. Such factors as wind and misbehavior of the gyrocompass can make the ship wander far off its course...