Map used for air navigation?

[Guest Gary Davidson]

This is apparently a French bicycle/auto map of France owned by a Lieutenant Mitchell of the US Air Service (per the ink inscription). Is this the kind of folding map a pilot would conceivably use for navigation?

Gary

[Guest Gary Davidson]

Another pic of it...

[Old Tom]

Hello,

The maps available to the BEF at the start of the war were the French 1:80,000 scale (about 1.25 miles to the inch) and were out of date and inaccurate, and the 1:100,000 Belgian. By the end of the war the BEF survey staff numbered some 400 officers and 6,000 ORs. During the war maps of various scales were made and 12,000 sq miles were photographed from the air through 1915. Some 32 millions maps of various scales were printed. Many of these maps were printed at the Ordnance Survey establishment at Southampton which set up a branch in France in 1917. I would think that pilots would need maps of a scale of about 1: 250,000 and that these could have been readily produced. They could have been overprinted with some of the detail from trench maps. I don’t know what was provided for US aviators; I believe they mainly used French aircraft, perhaps also French maps. I would hope that by 1918 something better than, presumably per war, cyclists maps would have been available.

Old Tom

[CROONAERT]

I would think that pilots would need maps of a scale of about 1: 250,000 and that these could have been readily produced. They could have been overprinted with some of the detail from trench maps. I don’t know what was provided for US aviators;

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Tom.

Sorry to disagree, but a 1;250,000 map couldn't feasably be overprinted with the detail from a trenchmap (maximum scale (and only in the 1918 "war of movement") - 1:40,000) apart from the general location of frontlines, which ,in all reality, could have been drawn on by hand.

I'm unsure of what scale pilots actually used, but I'd hazard a guess that 1:20,000 or 1:40,000 showed ample coverage and detail for their needs. 1:80,000, and 1:100,000 scales would give them an idea of location, but positions , etc., could not be marked with any real accuracy.The detail on these maps is simply not enough. Apart from that, the "operational range" of the various squadrons would be exceeded by a 1:80,000 map, nevermind a 1:250,000 scaler!

I'm no expert on RFC (or any other air force) mapping, but I do have several 1:20,000 scale trenchmaps that are marked up to RFC squadrons (but have never found any 1:10,000 scale ones). There must have been a reason for them to use this scale in particular.

dave.

[CROONAERT]

Is this the kind of folding map a pilot would conceivably use for navigation?

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Gary.

(As you may have guessed) I'd say not. The scale is too small for starters. Secondly, a pilot ,in the open cockpits of WW1, was unlikely to carry a complete map with him (they're pretty large and unwieldy in the wind!!!) but rather a cut out extract, possibly pasted to a board for stability.

dave.

[Guest Gary Davidson]

Old Tom, Dave --

Thanks for the informative answers!

Gary

[Old Tom]

Hello,

Hello,

Dave is correct, my reaction was a bit too modern. However corps squadrons concerned with artillery spotting and contact patrols etc would, I guess be concerned with an operational area about 6 miles square and might be based some 10 miles behind the line. If that is realistic, then a pilot/observor using a map at say 1:50,000 would need a portion of map not more than about 12" X 12" which as was said would be about all that could be handled in an open cockpit. Of course longer range missions would need more coverage.

Old Tom

[Old Tom]

Hello,

I have just been reading Ralph Barkers ‘The RFC in France – Bloody April 197 to Final Victory’ and the following, paraphrased from that work is interesting in the map context. At Messines aircraft from the corps squadrons were successful in spotting for registration of targets and fighters from the army squadrons prevented German doing the same. Fire was directed for 2,400 guns on the 10 mile front. Charles Smart (RE8s No 5 Sqn) complained that he would need to take a secretary up with him as ‘It almost drives me frantic trying to remember where each lot of ground strips (I assume these were the strips used to identify the artillery batteries were located and their readiness to register) and whose turn it was to fire on which target’

Regards, Old Tom

[Howard]

This is apparently a French bicycle/auto map of France owned by a Lieutenant Mitchell of the US Air Service (per the ink inscription).  Is this the kind of folding map a pilot would conceivably use for navigation?

Gary

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Gary

Most modern light aircraft fly at 80-120 Knots (ish) i.e. a similar speed to many Great War aircraft. Most people now use a 1:500,000 map, some in France use a 1:1,000,000. There are 1:250,000 maps available but once folded, you fly off the edge too quickly and re-folding is hard enough in our closed cockpit aircraft, in an open cockpit job it is a good way to have the map blow away. In the Great War this may have delivered it to the Germans.

Looking at the map you show, I would find it hard to use in an aircraft, there is a lot of "political" detail and not much topography. If I were to fly then, I might just have carried a road map with me for when the engine conks out or I was shot down.

Howard

[Guest Gary Davidson]

Howard,

I like your explanation of why an aero squadron Lieutenant would have a bicycle/automobile map in his possession. While it seems to be the consensus that the map shown would be impractical for any sort of in-flight navigation, the benefits of a easy to carry “road map” for ground travel -- be it a sight-seeing trip while on leave, or a useful guide when your aircraft malfunctioned – seems perfectly logical to me. From documents I’ve read of the period most flight officers logged much more time in ground travel than actual hours in the air anyway.

Gary