Stewart G3YSX

Wednesday 5 December 2001 7.00 for 7.30pm

        The Rise and Fall of the Decca Navigator System

          Walter Blanchard (President, Royal Institute of Navigation, 1993-1996)

          Wates House, University of Surrey

          The Decca Navigator was the world's most successful
          commercially operated radio navaid.  From 1946 to 2000 it
          provided over 40,000 ships and aircraft with a major means
          of navigation.  Originally used for the D-Day landings, this low
          frequency phase-comparison hyperbolic navaid was entirely
          developed in the UK, and at one time covered most of the
          major shipping areas of the world.  Although not successful in
          the air the cockpit presentation methods invented by the
          Decca company were the forerunners of the of the modern
          "glass cockpit"  - Decca having designed the first airborne
          digital computer for civil use.  The talk will describe the early
          Decca  trials in wartime, its use for D-Day, and subsequent
          history until its closure.

        For further information contact: Stewart Bryant.