[Milsurplus] Naval Aviation Navigation

[J. Forster]

Hue Miller wrote:

> So, if you needed to get  home direction, say at the maximum distance out of your attack
> flight, you would climb to necessary  altitude, altho that would cost in fuel, and probably
> not, at least for carrier based planes, be a practicable sustained flight altitude.

I'm not a pilot, but I believe that planes use less fuel at altitude than down low. Also, these
were not intercontinental planes in WW II and typical missions ranges were in the 1000 mile or
less ballpark. The carriers were likely to operate from as closely as relatively safe from the
target.

Also, a 117 mile distance to the horizon (234 mile circle) is a fairly large target. The angle
it subtends increases as you approach the carrier also. You could easily find that with a
compass or by estimating the sun's azimuth. Finding the carrier w/o the radio would be next to
impossible in comparison.

FWIW,
-John