Model, Ships Inertial Navigation System Mark IV, Charles Draper

This is a model of the SINS (Ships Inertial Navigation System) Mark IV developed in the early 1950s by Dr. Charles Stark Draper and built by Nortronics, Inc. Inertial navigation systems use gyroscopes and other instruments to feed information into a computer, which calculates the degree of drift from the intended course and recommends any needed corrections. Dr. Draper, founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Instrumentation Laboratory, was known as the "father of inertial navigation." He started working on the theory and technology of these systems in the 1930s, and through the decades his work led directly to their development and use in U.S. aircraft, rockets, missiles, ships, and manned and unmanned spacecraft.

Nortronics made the model and Dr. Draper donated it to the Museum.