Why is a gyrocompass not suitable as the main compass for an aircraft?

A gyrocompass is not suitable as the primary navigational compass for an aircraft primarily because the high speeds associated with flight—often reaching several hundred knots—severely interfere with the instrument's north-seeking properties.1

The core issue is that the gyrocompass relies on pendulosity to maintain its orientation, which makes it sensitive to vehicle accelerations in addition to gravity. When an aircraft travels at high speeds, it creates a significant angular velocity relative to inertial space. This causes the apparent meridian to rotate, leading to errors in the compass reading. While these errors can be mathematically corrected at the slower speeds typical of ships, doing so requires extremely accurate, real-time speed measurements that are not practical for aircraft navigation.12

Instead, aviation typically utilizes a gyromagnetic compass, which combines a directional gyroscope with a magnetic compass to provide stable and reliable directional information.3