Context: As a private pilot, I enjoy preparing my flights with a mix of paper charts and iPad apps. In flight, my navigation is now often very assisted by the G1000 or iPad, relegating the paper maps to backup. But I remember that, when I was only using paper maps during training, the workload could quickly rise and that I was sometimes exhausted after a short navigation because of that.
What are the longest (either by time or distance) known flights ever flown without any "modern" navigation system ?
I'm interested by flights that comply to the following criteria:
- Did not use any GPS or inertial navigation system (maps and stars are ok)
- Radio navigation is ok (but bonus point if the aircraft is not equipped for that)
- Have only one leg
- Take off and landing fields can be the same if the flight was long enough to require actual navigation (recon missions, circumnavigation...)
- Can be historical stories (war heroes, military experiment, pioneers...) as well as modern ones (record attempts...)
- May have a flight crew as large as Pilot + Co-Pilot + Navigator + Engineer, but...
- ...don't have any rest period for the crew (no backup crew on board)