KC-135's had windows in the rear of the flight deck for star navigation.

 

I think this has been misinterpret... Because navigation has become more advanced (or more accurate), thus aircraft position is more accurate, the need to See and Avoid is less of an issue. So I don't think that the author was directly saying that they were used for navigation, but there is less of a need because navigation has improved.

 

That's right up there with the "AFT ENTRY" joke

 

It's in other older aircraft too, like the 74 Classic. Makes a good hard boiled egg cannon . . . I've heard.

 

Some of the older DC-8's I flew had them too.

 

The one's in the E-3 (707) made good Hot Dog cannons, or like you said, so I've heard..., hard to explain hot dog guts frozen to the dish though, ( I can neither confirm nor deny whether someone I knew in a previous life told me this story over a few beers one night...)

 

I would remove the tinted sunscreen and checklists that were crammed in the eyebrow windows.

I liked the extra visibility, especially in the 727.

 

No, the KC-135 windows are just like the B-707 windows which are just like the B-727 windows which are just like the B-737 windows. No windows in the back.

What some of them have -- KC-135s, EC-135s, RC-135s, some other -135s -- or had -- B-727s, B747s -- is/was a hole in the top of the fuselage near the back of the cockpit, and a mount beneath that hole that accepts a persicopic sextant. The mount seals the hole when the sextant is not in use, and it holds the sextant in place when mounted. It holds it both in the retracted position (nothing sticking out of the airplane), and in the extended position -- to "shoot" celestial bodies. THe hole is 1.375" in diameter -- slightly smaller than the diameter of a large chicken egg. That doesn't mean a large chicken egg wouldn't fit through it, though.

Vacuuming with the sextant port was frowned on after debris kept getting lodged in the Q inlet, which affected rudder feel. My favorite party trick involved a roll of toilet paper. Insert wooden pencil through cardboard tube, and hang on to both ends of the pencil. Open sextant port and put end of roll up to the hole. As long as nothing gets caught and it's allowed to unroll freely, it takes about 3 seconds for a full roll to unwind and exit the airplane.




A tripod would have rendered a sextant useless. The person using the sextant has to move the sextant as the airplane moves -- even when it seems straight-and-level, unaccelerated, the view through the sextant window says otherwise. The only tripod normally associated with celestial navigation might be found on the stool to stand on so one could reach the sextant hanging from the ceiling. (Another "fun" thing to do was to feed in a good portion of rudder before a cel shot began, and then during the shot, slowly let the rudder out and feed in the opposite rudder. Of course, it's only advisable to play that game when other means of navigation are in use, because the results of that cel shot won't be pretty. )



Eyebrow windows are handy for receiver air refueling.






.

 

Periscopic Sextant

MIL-S-5807A Sextant, Aircraft, Periscopic

Should you wish to buy one

MILITARY AIRCRAFT PERISCOPE SEXTANT - Surplus Shed

Instructions

http://www.ion.org/museum/files/periscopicSextant.pdf


The Astrodome

File:Reliant Astrodome.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oops, sorry. And an Astrodome

File:Astrodome On Warwick.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And if I recall correctly, the film The High and the Mighty

Photos from The High and the Mighty

has a scene showing an astrodome in use.

 

Getting some celestial nav instruction from the Navigator helped to pass the time on long night flights. About all I remember now is "follow the arc to Arcturus, and speed on to Spica." In earlier days, pilots could learn a lot from the Flight Engineer and Radio Operator too. Automation, for all its benefits, has taken away part of our aviation heritage.