Draper Lab successfully installs and tests an Inertial Navigation System (INS) on an MIT B-29. The test flight is from Boston to Los Angeles. Eleven people are on board, but they will not touch the controls once aloft. After 2,232 nautical miles of navigation and a 12-hour, 38-minute flight, the position error is only 9 miles. The system weighs 1,000 pounds and has a diameter of 1 meter. In the version that will be used on the Apollo missions, it will be 1 foot in diameter, weigh 400 kg, and the position error on the Boston-LA leg is reduced to just 2 miles.
