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    A.E.R.E HARWELL
⟶ Harwell ⟶ Literature
A.E.R.E HARWELL
⟶ Harwell ⟶ Literature
Further reading ⇓

Articles
□ New authority for atomic energy
□ The miracle of atomic energy
□ Biographies
□ BEPO and the Turin Shroud
□ Atom Harvest
□ Nuclear physics in the United Kingdom 1911-1986
□ Russian spy in the Cotswolds
□ Los Alamos from below
□ Fateful discovery almost forgotten
□ Haunt of the Hammer Gang
RAF Harwell
□ Before the war
□ Celestial towers
Publications
□ Newsletters
□ Technical publications

Celestial Navigation Trainers at RAF Harwell

An article in the July 2000 issue of ECHO

Celestial Navigation Trainers at RAF Harwell: Article from ECHO (July 2000)

Celestial Navigation Trainers at RAF Harwell: Article from ECHO (July 2000)
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© UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council

The demolition of two innocuous sheds last month marked the closing chapter of the curious tower-shaped structures used by the RAF at Harwell during the war. The small brick structures known as B43 and B44 were all that remained of RAF Harwell's "Celestial Navigation Trainers."

Located 100 metres to the west of JCL's B344 offices once stood three octagonal-shaped towers. Wartime navigators trained in them to fly using the stars. In the blackness of the windowless towers, mock-ups of the night sky were projected onto a high circular ceiling, rather like today's planetariums.

Trainee gunners also used the towers. Strapped into a swivelling gun turret the gunner had to follow a quickly moving spot of light projected onto the ceiling. He did this by using a second light source fastened to his gun mounting and the training greatly improved his reaction times.

Following the take-over of Harwell by the Ministry of Supply in 1946, B43 was adapted as a temporary home for a Van der Graaff accelerator. Harwell's only fatality occurred through a fall from the top of one of the towers being used in a scientific experiment. Two of the towers were subsequently demolished in 1966 and the third one rebuilt at the rear of B353, where it survived in its original shape until the late 1990s.

Meanwhile the adjacent single-storey sheds were re-roofed and used as laboratories for electronics work and stores for associated radioactive isotopes. UKAEA finally decommissioned them after 60 year's varied use earlier this year.

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