AIRPLANE DEAD RECKONING NAVIGATION PROCEDURE WWII TRAINING FILM 33974

“Dead Reckoning Procedure” is the title and the subject of this black-and-white U.S. Army training film, produced during circa 1942. (In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating a current position by using a previously determined, or fixed, position.) The film opens with a scene of an airplane in flight, and a brief explanation to the viewer that in order for a pilot to reach an enemy target, skilled crew members must be familiar with aerial navigation and in particular, dead reckoning. “In flights over land and sea, dead reckoning is used by itself and in conjunction with other methods of navigation. The principles are adaptable to any specific situation,” the narrator explains starting at mark 00:35. The film switches scenes to a lieutenant preparing for a typical flight mission from Georgia to South Carolina. In great detail, the navigator reviews weather maps and forecasts, including wind speeds. Then, determining a fixed position on a map, he fills in his log sheet before plotting a course. With maps laid on before him and the narrator presenting step-by-step explanations, the navigator is shown establishing possible emergency landing sites beginning at mark 06:10, as well as checking for mountains or other hazards along his path.
With his pre-flight routine completed, the navigator boards the aircraft at mark 08:08 and is shown carefully checking the seven instruments he will use in dead reckoning, including a magnetic periodic compass, drift meter, airspeed indicator, temperature gauge, and the altimeter. Airborne by mark 10:10, the navigator is shown noting additional information in his log book, including time of take off, before taking drift readings to aid in the dead reckoning process. Another drift reading (which are taken at five-minute intervals) means another entry into the log book, the narrator explains at mark 12:10. The film continues explaining various scenarios, including additional changes in heading, and verification of air speed.
An animation beginning at mark 15:12 shows the viewer, in painstaking detail, how the navigator uses a double drift process to determine and then calculate changes in wind speed and direction. From there, the film shows the navigator recalculating the plane’s time of arrival. Near mark 21:45, the pilot reports his position to his base as the navigator is shown taking additional drift readings before correcting the airplane’s heading. With oil pressures dropping in one engine, the navigator calculates a location for a possible emergency landing at mark 22:30, before the situation is determined to simply be a false alarm. Following a few more readings, the plane safely arrives at its destination … one time. “The navigator who knows his job will be the one who gets his airplane to any destination, including Berlin or Tokyo,” the narrator says as the films comes to an end.
We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference."
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com

[@notwocdivad]

How on earth the wartime navigators got the planes to and from their targets is beyond me! with the threat of fighters and flak on top of everything else! Especially the British RAF who did it at night!!! Truly amazing!!

[@robdixson196]

Navigator remembered his pencils, but forgot his reading glasses. They never seen again.

[@TerryPullen]

I could have been a navigator when I was young. On one flite. That never was seen again.

[@donneale7555]

Don't worry, I'd meet you when you arrived.

[@maxasaurus3008]

Hell I’ve been waiting for you two for years!

[@pnayeri]

Marlin Brando, and Omar Sharif were magnificent in this training movie!

[@MROIY]

Post-EMP💣? Yes, This is still valuable information.

[@bobo1959er]

What a gem

[@farayidarlingtonchaparadza20]

E6B hard at work.

[@MrWasim100100]

nice video

[@johnopalko5223]

I've never seen the wind face of an E6B used that way before! I'll have to give it a try. Yes, I paused the video and ran the TAS computation on my whiz wheel and was pleased to get the same answer. Any idea why he used indicated altitude and not pressure altitude in his calculation?

[@craigwall9536]

Probably because at an altitude that low the error introduced by choosing indicated altitude fell within the errors from other inaccuracies and was therefore a justifiable simplification. But that's just a guess. EDIT: He DID use pressure altitude- not only did the narrator SAY "pressure altitude", it showed a DIFFERENT altimeter that had no Kollsman window.

[@DebunkLeftyPropaganda]

Why does your profile pic look like Walter White? Lol

[@MrAeronca100]

Wow you kids out there would be lost without your GPS and Notebooks, it was more interesting flying from A to B back then and you actually enjoyed the scenery, my cub/champ trips from one end of the country to the other (sans Radio) I will always remember

[@craigwall9536]

Yeah, me too- but then flogging around down low in an Aeronca Chief it was pretty easy to just contact fly. It's tougher in an Ercoupe- can't see a damned thing with all that wing in the way. Plus the atmosphere is a lot hazier than it was back then. I still use a sectional and keep track, but I'll admit I use my little Garmin Etrex hiker GPS as a flight director and sanity check. With two of them you can get cross bearings on top.

[@Oliverdobbins]

That does it! I’m never going to use the system that uses signals from machines in orbit around the planet that triangulates your position anywhere on Earth to within three metres and then calculates the route to your destination based on your means of transport and current weather conditions (which are also beamed into my device from Space in real time) which is built into the thin, lightweight, glass and metal, microprocessor-driven, battery-powered device that’s small enough to fit into my pocket again! From now on it’s turn-y slide ruler thing, a map, three hours of preparation and a sharpened pencil!

[@HerbertTowers]

Harrumph. Quadlateration actually.

[@MrAeronca100]

I remember you had to have a real sharp pencil for plotting when taking a written, sloppy work on the wind graph didn't hack it...

[@GlenDoer-gq1rs]

One day I was working with the Nav.telling him when we were on top of an Airfield.looked I down as we flew over my home town. Thinking 4 yrs ago I was at school there and now 7500ft in the air over my school.r

[@MROIY]

No blackbox required, just flammable paper

[@user-mu4br4vt2h]

enjoy

[@BrassLock]

A tough job to undertake in hostile conditions. No wonder Bomber Harris made use of Mosquito Pathfinders with flares onto the target.

[@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819]

dav snow and not just Mosquitos.

[@jimeditorial]

What happens if that guy ends up in a B-25, jumped by Zeros and the airplane ends up miles off course with the maps and papers all over the cabin?

[@jkjo1960]

He goes celestial... or panic...

[@craigwall9536]

Wait: the oil pressure dropped ... _and then came back up_ ... and they just act like no big whoop? That's just _asking_ for it....

[@mpeg2tom]

From December 1941-August 1945, the US Army Air Forces lost 14,903 pilots, aircrew and assorted personnel plus 13,873 airplanes inside the continental United States.

[@artyzinn7725]

DR is what inertial guidance does far more frequently today.

[@HerbertTowers]

Please explain?

[@igsaturation]

@@HerbertTowers en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_reckoning

[@HerbertTowers]

@@igsaturation So called "Dead Reckoning" was used before for hundreds of years before even accurate clocks were invented. All forms of navigation use some form of dead reckoning. Inertial platforms, GPS and so on can only determine current position Depending on the positioning software/thinking power integrate and one gets acceleration, integrate that and you can get speed. Even after all that though 'guesswork' is involved to predict factors such as wind changes, tide, current hopeless navigators and so on. Remember that the gyros (mechanical or otherwise) keep the platform (mechanical or otherwise) oriented and it's the accelerometers that do the measurement (not calculation). It's said that "The art of (air) navigation is to establish a vessel's position and to guide the vessel to any other position". Please excuse my poor grammar.

[@MrUhwoody]

"I reckon so."

[@grantjohnston5817]

Ex sailor so i plumb reckon!

[@barrycohen1731]

a different time!!!

[@donwert]

With OMNI and GPS, I wonder if these skills are still taught?

[@PeriscopeFilm]

This year the Navy has reverted to train celestial navigation due to threat of attack on GPS and jamming. www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/u-s-navy-resumes-celestial-navigation-training-04042016/

[@griffithaustinllc7458]

donwert Yes.

[@craigwall9536]

Still taught. Not necessarily practiced.

[@michaelgarrow3239]

Yep- every student has an E6-B. It’s an evil plot by the former buggy-whip manufacturing company…

[@KetsaKunta]

They had handheld computers before they were mainstream

[@robertrabinsky8622]

Yes but what about over water?

[@HerbertTowers]

Cross the coastline and then cross the fingers! Then get cross with the nav for applying the drift the wrong way!

[@pnayeri]

Watching this old training video, I noticed he made one big mistake! He forgot to check his flux capacitor reading and adjust as necessary! What do you guys think? Did anyone else catch that beside me?

[@allandavis8201]

Funniest looking computer I ever saw, more like calculator or computational device. I could never have been a Nav, I can’t fold a map properly to this day, and programming all those numbers into the Nav aids like way points etc, not for me, never did like maths. Best navigators in any airforce, the ones that have the impresst money and directions to nearest bar, and the next, and the next and..........., worst navs, the ones who forget to pick up the impresst, and don’t know directions to the hotel, let alone the nearest bar, favourite navs, the ones that get lost on the way to exercise areas, least liked navs, the ones that got lost on way back to home base, funniest navs, ones that think they should be in the right hand seat (helicopters) front seat, (fast jets) any seat (heavies). Helicopter develops fault, Nav tells pilot what field to land in, or just follow the road signs for nearest pub in countryside to await repair team, leave repair team to fix cab, takes repair teams wheels and driver to RTB, repair team fix CAB, crew returns......in the morning and fly back home, repair team drive themselves back to base and do another shift.

[@HerbertTowers]

WHAAT! Trust a nav with the Imprest? NEVER!