> use of GPS in civilian aviation actually came from compass getting confused during polar flight resulting in heading reversal
Do you have a source for that? I was under the impression that INS-based navigation was much more precise than for that to have been an issue by the time GPS became available to civil aviation.
While GPS was apparently always planned to be provided for civilian navigation, Korean Air Flight 007 being shot down due to error in navigating over north pole led to explicit mention by White House:
KAL007 was an usage error of the INS mode of the aircraft's autopilot, though, which was itself working as designed (although that design was a bit of a footgun in retrospect).
The exact same error could have happened for a Pacific crossing near the equator. Magnetic aberration being larger near the poles had nothing to do with it.
