What was used before VOR ?

Question

From reading i understand that VOR navigation did not come untill around early to mid 50's. So what did they use for navigation before that ? (other then visual) lets say in the 30's and 40's, around the time that the DC-3's came in to major use. also about using the VOR navigation. i have been reading about it but just cant seem to understand it. Say that i am in florida and want to fly to texas VOR. so i just dial in my destinations VOR freq and pretty much just follow the neddle or is it more like flying to this station first, then to this one ect.. kind of like way points. Thanks!

Answer 1

well in the early early times of avaition im talkin wright brothers

they allways used landmarks like certain barns to figure out where to go

Answer 2

First they used signal fires then lighted towers then nondirectional beacons (even radio stations).  You'd have to use several VOR's between Florida and Texas.  There are 2 signals coming from a VOR station.  Your receiver compares them and can tell you where you are relative to the station.  These VOR stations are networked in such a way as to create electronic "interstates" in the sky.  There are altitude limitations but thats covered on the map in addition to minimum standards for all.

Answer 3

Non directional beacon. NDB. Still in use today. Same band as the AM in your car.

Answer 4

Yep, NDB.  One would DF or direction find off a known station.  The bearing from two or more gave one a position.  You might have seen WW2 and Korean War aircraft with a loop either behind the pilot or on the fuselage.  That loop antenna was used for DF; to a specific airfield beacon frequency (at least in Europe during WW2).

My personal war story is there was an AM rock station in Phoenix that must have been broadcasting over 50Kw-this was around 1976.  I could pick this up almost 150 miles away.  I would tune the NDB to that to get some decent music in the cockpit.....

Answer 5

I beleive they were using the stars - same as maritime.

Some pilots learn using towers/antennas for guidance.

Answer 6

Low frequency radio ranges, nondirectional beacons, and marker beacons.

You might dial in a local station and fly a radial that goes directly toward your destination or toward a VOR near (or in line with) your destination.  When you are out of range of the VOR behind you, and not yet in range of the VOR at or near your destination, use (direction and distance information from) VORs that are off to the side to know your position and maintain your course.

Answer 7

The most common precision radio navigation aid in the 1930s and 1940s was the four-arm radio range.  This was a system that used four towers or poles with dipole antennas strung between them.  There were a few 4-arm ranges still in operation when I first learned to fly, and they were marked on the first sectional aeronautical charts I bought.

They were all gone by about 1968.  You flew the 4-arm range by listening to the morse code tones it produces.  The antennas generated four overlapping lobes, two sending the morse code letter "A" and the other sending "N."  You could fly a more or less straight line right up the gap between any two of the four lobes by merging the A and the N to produce a steady tone.  You could tell if you drifted off because you would start to hear "Ns" if you drifted one way or "As" if you drifted the other way.  You listened with any small HF receiver, and you could pick up the 4-arm range on any ADF receiver.

I never actually flew one, thank goodness, but many pilots I knew in those days had done it for years.  The point is that "Omnirange" is an improvement on the 4-arm range.  "Omni" is short for "omnidirectional."  In the old range, you could only use it to fly one of the four directions in which it worked.  But it was an immense improvement over NDBs alone.

It's a little bit hard to explain, and there is not much information about the old ranges on the internet.  Look at Encyclopedia Britannica.  They still have an article on the old ranges.  And aviation books from the WW2 era contain lots of detailed information.  The best is _Your Wings_ by Assen Jordanoff, which is still to be found in used and rare bookstores and on the internet.

In addition there were extensive NDB facilities, including FAA beacons and broadcast radio stations.

And visual aids including the light line were in wide use in those days.  Look up "light line."  At one point the airlines paid farmers to paint arrows on barn roofs.  I remember a huge barn in the middle of a flat field with "Indianapolis" painted on the roof with a huge arrow pointing that way.

Answer 8

aviophag... Is correct.  But don't forget the VAR range (but it didn't last long) Ever wonder what the Yellow and blue sections were for on the bottom of the VOR instrument?

I remember the good ole' 4 legged Loop and Ad-c**k LF Ranges well.

If you want to know if your a good IFR pilot try holding on an LF intersection with one ole' "coffee grinder" receiver.

Did it for the FAA test and never again (thank God, I couldn't do it again if my life depended on it)

Answer 9

Aviophage is correct. I cant' believe she is admitting to knowing this. lol. I guess you read it in books like me, not.

Answer 10

in the old days they used a direction finder which points you to the station. there would be a guy standing there and he would hear your engines and tell you when you were overhead, then you do the outbound timing and then turn inbound to land. those were the good ol' days.