Lost at Sea? The Engineering Genius Behind 1944 LORAN

LORAN used precisely timed pulses from pairs of shore stations to turn radio signals into lines on a chart. This video explains how the receiver worked, why one completed station was useless without its partner, and how Coast Guard crews built a navigation network across remote Pacific islands during World War II. CHAPTERS 0:00 Finding position without speaking 0:58 The limits of dead reckoning 1:43 How LORAN made a radio landmark 2:05 Inside the APN-4 receiver 3:32 Two lines make a fix 4:18 MIT develops LORAN 5:52 From experiment to network 7:33 Building the Marianas chain 8:45 Saipan's unfinished station 9:08 Blasting a channel to Cocos Island 9:52 Ulithi completes the chain 10:40 Why bomber crews needed it 11:27 Ships, transport planes and medical evacuation 12:41 72 stations and 70,000 receivers 13:28 From LORAN to GPS What other overlooked technology should Applied Innovations cover next? Subscribe to Applied Innovations for more stories about the systems and projects that shaped modern life.