Inertial Navigation

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Inertial Navigation

Y. Hang

The use of gyroscopes as end instruments of sea navigation compasses, direction finders, gyrohorizons, and automatic pilots on aircraft already has a history of several decades. The so-called accelerometer, which utilizes the principle of inertia to measure the acceleration of a moving body, has also been well-known for some time. However, inertial navigation systems (called inertial guidance systems in rocket technology) which are composed of gyroscopes, accelerometers, and electronic computers have only been on the market for a little over twenty years. In the past twenty years, inertial navigation technology has developed rapidly, and the precision of inertial navigation has increased greatly. In 1944, the 'V-2' rocket made the first use of an inertial guidance system. Its range was 320 kilometers and its deviation from impact on target was approximately 1.6 kilometers. But now the range of long-range ballistic rockets has reached 10,000 kilometers, and even though they still use inertial guidance systems, because the precision of inertial elements has been greatly increased the deviation from impact on target is still only about 2 kilometers.