SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:11 pm Post subject: World War II Navigation

Since my father taught Radar during WWII, I asked him about navigation during World War II. Here is his response to my questions:

The Navy did not have automatic pilots. They did have automatic
direction finders made by Lear. These normally would be tuned to a local
radio station to home in or to get a bearing along a flight path. Most
automatic pilot investigation was done at FAA facility at Pimona, NJ
near Atlantic City. When turned on
the automatic pilot would fly the plane and land it in the auto mode.
Most of these experiments were done after WW11. VOR for the most part
came in after WW11 in the US. There was no VOR in the Pacific to my
knowledge. Most ADF's were used on Radio Stations like Honolulu, etc.
Many Islands did not have any radio stations. There were radio beacons
that could be picked up if the plane had radar. You could see the beacon
signal on the scope and some times there would be several on the scope.
Lot of the major cities in the US had these beacons such as Atlanta,
Macon, Athens, GA., etc. You could home in on these beacons or use them
to get a bearing and fix along your flight path. They appeared as small
lines the first line was the distance to the beacon. Then there ere
several lines in back that identified the beacon. Keep in mind in the
early part of WW11 in the Pacific there was very little available for
navigating. Mostly your compass
and stars at night. On the aircraft carriers there there was a beacon
transmitter that sent out coded audio signals. every 30 degrees. The
letter A was transmitted over the bow or the heading of the carrier then
the letter B for the next 30 degrees and then C for the next, etc. A
pilot could pick up this signal out about 100 miles by tuning to the
beacon frequency. He would hear in morse code a particular sector like C
_._.. He then would know his relative position to the carrier. If he
crossed into B sector he would know to turn left to get to the carrier.
The signal would get louder as he came in. or weaker if he was going
away from the carrier. Cool

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:21 pm Post subject: Amazing...

I have always been in awe of skilled navigators. Maybe you could interview your dad in more detail and record it along with some stories before they are lost forever. As the "greatest generation" passes away one by one the urgency to preserve such priceless history has never been more important. My father passed away some time ago and I still regret not doing more to archive his exploits.

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:55 pm Post subject:

I will share your reply with my father. If there are any other WWII enthusiasts out there, I sugggest that you get a copy of a paperback book that I bought about a month ago called THE MIGHTY EIGHTH. The History Channel often broadcasts stories about the Eighth Army Air Corps that flew missions out of England into Germany. This 550 page book is loaded with "personal stories" about each member of the crew. I am about three quarter through the book and have learned a great deal about their personal feeling, fears and courage. Cool

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 5:03 pm Post subject:

If you haven't been there yet and you ever find yourself in Savannah, GA... go checkout the Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum.

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 5:09 pm Post subject:

Ricktobin:

Thanks, I will definitely plan a trip in the near future. Here is the link to their website:

http://www.mightyeighth.org/

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 5:34 pm Post subject: Also,

For those who are into the stories of Medal of Honor recipients and other hero worship, there is a little known book out there called "Apollo's Warriors" that details stories from Special Operations.

Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 12:39 am Post subject:

Funny how things work, I connected to my library to see if they had the book, nope. So I was going to do a ILL (inter-library loan) then I discovered it was made into a e-book and I am D/L it now.

See the book here