Navigation and landing [A century of powered flight 1903-2003]

Navigation and landing for the first half century of aviation fundamentally relied on radio-based electronic aids. The military began serious investigation of radio navigation during World War I. Up until WW II map reading, dead reckoning, and various means of radio direction finding were the primary methods of determining aircraft position. Since WWII a number of other navigation techniques, such as Doppler radar, radio inertial, pure inertial, aided inertial, and today's integrated GPS inertial, have been developed. Most of the inertial systems evolved from the military ICBM and subsequent space programs.