1. Harold Charles Gatty was an Australian navigator and aviation pioneer.
25 Facts About Harold Gatty
1. 2.
Harold Gatty was born on 5 January 1903 in Campbell Town, Tasmania.
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Harold Gatty began his career as a navigator on January 1,1917 at age 14, when he was appointed a midshipman at the Royal Australian Naval College at Jervis Bay.
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Ironically, far from being a star pupil in maths and navigation, Harold Gatty struggled to pass his courses in those subjects.
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Harold Gatty withdrew from the Naval College in May 1920 to serve for three years as an apprenticed ship's officer with the Patrick Steamship Company of Sydney.
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Harold Gatty became an expert in celestial navigation and served on many ships, some sailing between Australia and California.
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Harold Gatty opened a navigation school, teaching marine navigation to yachtsmen.
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In 1929, Harold Gatty navigated a Lockheed Vega on a flight from Los Angeles to New York City for Nevada Airlines, in an effort to demonstrate the feasibility of coast-to-coast passenger service.
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In 1930, Harold Gatty prepared a coast-to-coast route and navigation charts for Anne Morrow Lindbergh, who he had taught as a student.
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Harold Gatty accepted, hoping to demonstrate the effectiveness of his navigation methods.
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Post and Harold Gatty crossed the Atlantic, from Harbour Grace to Flintshire, in a record time of 16 hours and 17 minutes.
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The article lauded the artificial horizon and turn and bank indicator that Post and Harold Gatty used, which was developed by Lawrence Sperry and manufactured by the Sperry Gyroscope Company.
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Later in 1931, Wiley Post and Harold Gatty co-wrote a complete and detailed account of their record setting circumnavigation.
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Harold Gatty was offered American citizenship and the newly created position of Senior Aerial Navigation Engineer for the US Army Air Corps.
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Harold Gatty expressed his wish to remain associated with Australia and Congress passed a bill allowing foreign citizens to hold that post.
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In 1934, Harold Gatty formed the South Seas Commercial Company with Donald Douglas, with the plan to deliver air service to the islands of the South Pacific.
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Harold Gatty was sold to Pan Am, who brought Gatty into the company to organise flight routes in that region.
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In May 1935 Harold Gatty was hired by Pan Am founder Juan Trippe as Pan Am's representative in the Australasian area to assist in developing its Pacific operation, specifically the mapping of the San Francisco-China mid-Pacific air route and developing potential island stopovers.
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In November 1935, Noonan and Harold Gatty embarked in the schooner Kinkajou to investigate Baker, Howland, and Jarvis islands and conduct meteorological observations.
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Harold Gatty was later appointed director of Air Transport for the Allied forces, based in Australia, under General Douglas MacArthur.
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Harold Gatty moved to Washington, DC in 1943 where he worked on a navigational supplement for a survival kit, for Air Force personnel flying over the Pacific in the event they should become castaways.
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Harold Gatty produced The Raft Book: Lore of the Sea and Sky to fill the need:.
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Harold Gatty was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1950, as one of two nominated European members, and served for two years.
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In 1958, Harold Gatty's completed manuscript on natural and primitive navigation techniques, Nature Is Your Guide: How To Find Your Way on Land and Sea by Observing Nature was published.
25.
Harold Gatty attributed cultural significance to the use of the pelorus by ancient Polynesians.