An Introduction to Loran

Abstract

In less than five years, loran, the American embodiment of a new method of navigation, has grown from a concept into a service used by tens of thousands of navigators over three tenths of the surface of the earth. Even under the stress of military urgency, the direct development cost of this system has been less than two per cent of the seventy-five million dollars so far spent for operational equipment. The first part of the present paper describes the history of this program as an example of the efficient "mass production" of research and development under the National Defense Research Committee. A second section deals with the fundamental concepts of hyperbolic navigation and gives some details regarding the kinds of equipment now employed for transmission, reception and interpretation of pulse signals for this service. The third part of the paper discusses the potential usefulness of hyperbolic navigation and suggests some of the many devices which will simplify the navigation of the future and enhance its reliability. The final section mentions the organizational problem immediately before us.