Gyroscopes on ships

[chicopee]

This is another technical area of interest and that deals w/gyroscopes on ships. Are there any webb site that details the mass of gyroscopes, rotational speeds, how are they powered, placement on ships, etc..? How about the bearings are they gas types?

 

[IRstuff]

Not sure about other ships, but aircraft carriers generally carry two, at either ends of the ship and supplemented with redundant GPS. Some of the ships carry ring-laser gyros, while the submarines supposedly carry electrostatically suspended gyros.

The WSN-7 made by Sperry was the gyro of choice a while back. Sperry still makes it, but there are no specs on their website:

http://www.sperrymarine.northropgrumman.com/Products/Inertial_Navigation/ANWSN7/

The MK39 ring-laser gyro has more information available:

http://www.sperrymarine.northropgrumman.com/Products/Inertial_Navigation/mk39/

TTFN

 

[SteveFehr]

Ships don't use actual gyroscopes anymore (well, there are still some obsolete SINS around, but fewer every year); it's all ring laser gyros now, like the AN/WSN-7, which is constantly refreshed and still state-of-the-art. I'd comment further about the placement and performance, but it's all FOUO as the gyros are pretty sensitive components.