Navigator

Responsibilities include planning the journey, advising the ship's captain or aircraft commander of estimated timing to destinations while en route, and ensuring hazards are avoided.

Using multiple independent position fix methods without solely relying on electronic systems subject to failure helps the navigator detect errors.

In the world's air forces, modern navigators are frequently tasked with weapons and defensive systems operations, along with co-pilot duties such as flight planning and fuel management, depending on the type, model and series of aircraft.

Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land, natural features of the seabed, details of the coastline, navigational hazards, locations of natural and man-made aids to navigation, information on tides and currents, local details of the Earth's magnetic field, restricted flying areas, and man-made structures such as harbors, buildings and bridges.

Nautical charts are essential tools for marine navigation; many countries require vessels, especially commercial ships, to carry them.

British merchant vessels receive weekly Notices to Mariners issued by the Admiralty.

In a deep-sea vessel with a folio of over three thousand charts this can be a laborious and time-consuming task for the navigator.

Every producer of nautical publications also provides a system to inform mariners of changes that affect the chart.

This mental model becomes the standard by which the navigator will measure progress toward the goal of a safe and efficient voyage, and it is manifested in a written passage plan.

Passage planning procedures are specified in International Maritime Organization Resolutions, in the laws of IMO signatory countries (for example, Title 33 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations), and a number of professional books and USN/USAF publications.

There are some fifty elements of a comprehensive passage plan depending on the size and type of vessel, each applicable according to the individual situation.

Passage planning software, tide and tidal current predictors, celestial navigational calculators, consumables estimators for fuel, oil, water, and stores, and other useful applications.

According to a science fiction citations site for the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest known use of the word is in David Lasser's 1931 book The Conquest of Space.