Aircraft Carrier Instrument Approaches

[Dan Jones]

A little off topic, but as I sit here at work in the fog and the rain a question came to mind:

Did WW2 Navy pilots have an instrument approach procedure for getting back aboard ship in the weather or in the dark, or was it strictly a VFR, find the water then find the boat, operation? I can think of a few possibilities but they would entail the ship transmitting either vectors by voice or having a low-range NDB. I figure someone on here will know.

Dan

[menards]

A little off topic, but as I sit here at work in the fog and the rain a question came to mind:

Did WW2 Navy pilots have an instrument approach procedure for getting back aboard ship in the weather or in the dark, or was it strictly a VFR, find the water then find the boat, operation? I can think of a few possibilities but they would entail the ship transmitting either vectors by voice or having a low-range NDB. I figure someone on here will know.

Dan

Attached below is a pic illustrating a WW2 carrier instrument approach...

[wendovertom]

While I have absolutely no qualification to say anything on this topic, I do recall the story about a squadron returning to the carrier when the sun was almost down and the captain ordered the lights to be turned on. Gutsy as this gives your position away, but I guess it also means that at that time, if you could not see the boat you were in trouble.

Tom P.

[Randy Wilson]

While not an instrument approach device, the US carriers did have a homing beacon to help their aircraft locate the carrier. This was called the YE-ZB system. The ZB part was the receiver in the aircraft. These did not have great range and were often unreliable. A Google search will turn up several links including this one on a forum that talks about the homing system:

https://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/557190-How-did-Navy-aircraft-find-their-Carrier-after-a-mission-Forums/page2

Hope that helps. Randy

[Dan Jones]

Thanks Randy, that's an interesting read.

[TheBoy]

Somewhat related, I just finished reading "Never Call Me a Hero" - Jack Kleiss' memoir. Jack was an SBD pilot with VS-6 on the Enterprise during the Battle of Midway. While he doesn't go into great detail about instrument approaches, he does reference and discuss the YE-ZB as well as some operations in bad weather. He specifically talks about landing at night and talking off in virtual 0/0 conditions (so bad he couldn't see the end of the carrier deck to line up on). It's a fantastic read and gives a bit of insight into how crude and risky carrier operations in WWII were, aside from the fact that they were at war.