How WW2 Pilots Found Their Way Back To Carriers

Returning to an aircraft carrier during WWII can be challenging for naval aviators. Unlike modern planes equipped with advanced navigational aids and communication systems, pilots during the 1940s had to rely on rudimentary tools, their skills, and a great deal of improvisation.

Returning Home

Without visual landmarks, pilots back in the day had no reference points to determine their location, and failing to find the carrier meant they had to ditch the aircraft.

Even if they survived an emergency water landing, managing to get into a raft, they still faced a bleak outlook.

YE-ZB ‘Hayrake’ System

Before the war, the US Navy recognized the need for a better navigation system to help carrier-based planes find ships in the open ocean. Then the YE-ZB ‘Hayrake’ system was developed to address this need.

Specifications of the system required a signal to be transmitted so that it could be received by an aircraft flying at 15,000 feet from a distance of 275 miles. This system was tested in early 1938 during a fleet exercise with the USS Saratoga. The Navy was so impressed with the results that it decided to equip all carriers and carrier aircraft with this system.

Determining Position

How did the pilots determine the YE transmitter’s position? The idea was pretty simple- it was designed to transmit 12 various Morse code letters as the antenna rotated through 360 degrees.

Then each of the 12 Morse code letters corresponds to a 30-degree slice of the compass. The pilot or radio operator hearing the signal of a given letter could determine which piece of the compass his position was on and what direction to take to get back to the ship.