The Prince of Navigators

CXVII

Harold Gatty (1903-1957) got his nickname “The Prince of Navigators” from Charles Lindbergh himself. Born in Tasmania, Gatty was apprenticed as a maritime navigator during World War I at the ripe old age of 14. Ultimately, he became the most sought-after navigator Down Under. 

Harold Gatty, The Prince of Navigators

At age 25, his interest turned to aeronautics. Of course, the basics of both forms of navigation are identical. Gatty wed his maritime knowledge to his aeronautical knowledge and designed a series of worldwide Pilot Charts in 1930. Gatty’s Pilot Charts were used by Anne Morrow Lindbergh to undertake the numerous survey flights which Charles and she made on behalf of Juan Trippe and Pan American.

A typical Gatty Pilot Chart, still in use today

While Gatty was designing Pilot Charts he was also flying regularly with Wiley Post. He began to collect and organize data for pilots, becoming, in effect, the Matthew Fontaine Maury of the skies. Although Gatty never published his findings in a compendium such as Maury’s famed Sailing Directions, he did write a series of books for pilots which form the backbone of any good flier’s library. Among his titles are Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass, Nature Is Your Guide: How To Find Your Way On Land And Sea By Observing Nature, and Finding Your Way on Land Or Sea: Reading Nature's Maps.

Harold Gatty’s books are not only fascinating, they were required reading for World War II pilots --- and still should be

Gatty primarily relied on Dead Reckoning to travel.  The basic formula for DR is Distance = Speed x Time. Distance can be effected by current (on the seas) or prevailing winds (in the skies), and Gatty devised a basic albeit crucial tool, the Wind Triangle, to determine drift.

A Wind Triangle. Without Harold Gatty’s inventions long-distance flying would still be essentially an exercise in creative suicide

 

Gatty also helped design an early Artificial Horizon and the first Turn and Bank Indicator for instrument flying.

Sperry’s 1929 Artificial Horizon developed in association with Harold Gatty

Another Gatty innovation: Sperry’s earliest turn-and-bank indicator

Gatty also went into the airline business, hoping to establish routes from the U.S. to Australia and New Zealand. He was soon bought out by Pan American with whom he held a regional Presidency.   

   

During World War II, Gatty held dual offices in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) developing supply networks and survival techniques for downed fliers. His The Raft Book: Lore of the Sea and Sky teaches castaways how to navigate using ancient Polynesian navigation techniques that carried that people from Tahiti to Hawaii across the vast Pacific. 

After World War II, Gatty founded still-extant Fiji Air. He died prematurely of a stroke at age 54, in 1957. 

Fiji today