This Army Air Corps training film is part of a larger group of training films on aerial navigation. Produced in 1941, Aerial Navigation: Radio Aids gives an overview of how to use radio frequencies to determine an aircraft’s position. The film opens with a B-17 Flying Fortress flying through the clouds, then the film shows several radio towers. Footage shows the cockpit and instrument panel of an aircraft, presumably of the B-17. The film shows the Air Navigation Radio Aids handbook published by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (01:45). There is an aerial view of a radio range station. Graphics are used to show how radio fields are set up at a range station using radiators. A map shows radio range coverage in the U.S. (05:27). The film shows a radio tower and discusses the “cone of silence,” which is located directly above a radio tower (06:50). A pilot sits in the cockpit and adjusts knobs on his radio panel (07:29). Z-type markers are used at a radio range station (08:58). A marker beacon in the plane flashes when a plane flies over the Z-type marker (09:41). A fan marker can also be used as a position marker at a radio range system (10:05). The pilot watches the plane’s marker beacon signaling when it is in range of the fan marker. A pilot dials in his range receiver (12:29). The pilot looks at his radio facilities chart. A graphic is used to show how a pilot adjusts his course based on the signals he receives from a radio beam. The film uses basic animation over an aerial photograph to show how a plane can make minor adjustments while the pilot is trying to determine the correct course (18:00). A pilot adjusts the volume of his radio in the cockpit (18:40). A man in a range station transmits regular weather reports (22:31). The film shows the fifth radio tower of a range station that is for voice transmissions, primarily weather reports. The film then shows the radio compass on the instrument panel (23:29) and its antennae on the exterior of the plane. A man takes off the cover of a loop antennae on the top of an aircraft (24:40). A pilot plots his location on a chart (26:30). The film then shows the new automatic compass panel (26:47). A plane flies over a radio tower of a radio range station, concluding the film.

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