HISTORY OF AN EARLY DAYS AIRCRAFT

COMMUNICATIONS AND NAVIGATIONS

HISTORY OF AVIONICS
(COMMUNICATIONS)
• The history of avionics is the history of the use of
electronics in aviation. Both military and civil aviation
requirements contributed to the development. The First
World War brought about an urgent need for
communications. Voice communications from ground-to-
air and from aircraft to aircraft were established.

• The development of aircraft reliability and use for civilian

purposes in the 1920s led to increased instrumentation
and set in motion the need to conquer blind flight—flight
without the ground being visible. Radio beacon direction
finding was developed for en route navigation. Toward the
end of the decade, instrument navigation combined with
rudimentary radio use to produce the first safe blind
landing of an aircraft.
Early voice communication radio tests in 1917. Courtesy
of AT&T Archives and History Center.
• In the 1930s, the first all radio-controlled blind-
landing was accomplished. At the same time, radio
navigation using ground-based beacons expanded.
Instrument navigation certification for airline pilots
began. Low and medium frequency radio waves were
found to be problematic at night and in weather. By
the end of the decade, use of high frequency radio
waves was explored and included the advent of high-
frequency radar.
• In the 1940s, after two decades of
development driven by mail carrier
and passenger airline requirements,
World War II injected urgency into
the development of aircraft radio
communication and navigation.
Communication radios, despite their
size, were essential on board
aircraft. Very high frequencies were
developed for communication and
navigational purposes.
• Installation of the first instrument landing systems
for blind landings began mid-decade and, by the end
of the decade, the very high frequency omni-
directional range (VOR) navigational network was
instituted. It was also in the 1940s that the first
transistor was developed, paving the way for
modern, solidstate electronics.
• Civilian air transportation increased over the ensuing decades.
Communication and navigation equipment was refined. Solid-
state radio development, especially in the 1960s, produced a
wide range of small, rugged radio and navigational equipment
for aircraft.

• The space program began and added a higher level of

communication and navigational necessity. Communication
satellites were also launched. The Cold War military build-up
caused developments in guidance and navigation and gave
birth to the concept of using satellites for positioning.
HISTORY OF NAVIGATIONS
• In 1952, when the SAS made the historic first flight
between the United States and Scandinavia via the Arctic,
navigation was a major challenge. The principal method
was astronavigation, in which the sun, moon, and stars
were used to determine position.

• To be able to steer the right course at these high latitudes,

navigators had to develop new tools, such as a high-
precision polar gyro that made it possible to chart a route
using a grid map that had been specially designed for use
in the Arctic.
• The navigation capability of today’s smartphones, with
their built-in Global Positioning System (GPS), would make
1950’s navigators drop their jaws, but their pioneering
work bore fruit in 1960 when the jets started flying the
Arctic route.

• Fixed radio beacons were rare in the Arctic, but by using

ground-based pairs of radio transmitters that broadcast
similar signals at identical intervals, the navigators could
plot the route according to the time difference between
the signals – a method that formed the basis of the LORAN
system.
• By the time SAS upgraded its fleet with Douglas DC-10s,
navigation was done with the help of the Inertial
Navigation System, which used accelerometers and
motion sensors that detected the slightest movement of
the aircraft.

• This system continually calculated the plane’s position

independently of radio beacons or other equipment.
That also spelled the end for navigators, who had until
this point been indispensable.
• Today the standard is GPS, originally developed in
the 1960s to satisfy the navigational needs of the US
military. Russia has its own GPS system called
GLONASS, and soon China and the EU will have their
own GPS satellites in