I read Flight Journal from cover to cover and look forward to the each issue. Recently, reading about Naval aviators in WW II, I came back to a thought has plagued me over the years. How in the hell did these guys find their way around over miles of blue ocean … finding way back to the carrier … or searching for a Japanese fleet … or finding a tiny island to attack? I only mention them (the Navy) because I know that flying over land, landmarks are sometimes useful, but still finding their way around, especially in a single-engine plane when pilots had to also be their own navigators, seems like quite a challenge. Possibly an article in there somewhere?
Louis Chandler
Part of the time they had a homing beacon. However, be sure to read “Bad Kitty” in the August 2013 issue where Hellcat ace Lin Lindsey had to guesstimate his way home. —BD
