Approach nav in the old days

MikeD

MikeD

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Staff member
Anyone ever read about the old A-N radio range navigation stations that were used for enroute as well as an early non-precision approach method?

The system used stations that beamed out A or N in morse code. The A or N defined one or another side of an "airway". If on the airway, the A and N morse code meshed, creating a steady hum and telling the pilot he was on course.
 
We actually talked about those in an Aviation History course I took a few years ago...seemed like a crappy way to have to navigate, and helluva lot harder than just keeping the needle centered.

From the Captain's point of view, it's a good way to keep the FO busy with his mouth shut....
 
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We actually talked about those in an Aviation History course I took a few years ago...seemed like a crappy way to have to navigate, and helluva lot harder than just keeping the needle centered.

From the Captain's point of view, it's a good way to keep the FO busy with his mouth shut....

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The last of these approaches in the world was located at Chihuahua, Mexico. It went out of service in the mid 1980s. The last radio range approach in the US was located in Alaska. From what I've been told, an FAA flight-check DC-3 was cleared for the approach and flew it, taping the entire approach complete with video and audio. After landing, the approach was decommissioned. Circa 1967.
 
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Anyone ever read about the old A-N radio range navigation stations that were used for enroute as well as an early non-precision approach method?

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If you really want to know what this was like read "Fate is the Hunter" by Gann. This is the definitive book about early airline industry. Not to be confused with the movie with Glenn Ford.

Greatest aviation book ever written. Period.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671636030/103-0201692-1773404?v=glance

http://rwebs.net/avhistory/fate.htm
 
If my aviation history serves me correctly, the closer you go to the station, the louder the morse code was. I got a chance to look in the FAA's DC-3 at Sun N Fun, and they still had the range reciever in there. I think it was a "look how we USED to do things" deal.
 
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