Dating to 1946, this black and white animated U.S. Navy pilot training film “Disorientation Crashes” emphasizes the importance of avoiding unnecessary low-level flight during solos. The cartoon follows a naval aviator named “Full Panel” Morton and provides a lesson about disorientation and the importance of using instruments in low visibility flight. The cartoon shows Morton’s early experiences with losing visual contact, including as a Boy Scout in a snow storm (1:00). At (1:29), on a night flight, Morton almost collides with a neon sign after becoming disoriented. At 2:30, Morton is again disoriented while flying at night in turbulent conditions. At 3:00, he’s in a spin, tries hard to level out, but relies on his inner ear instead of his instruments. He ends up in a crash and the hospital. When he recovers he spends time in a LINK trainer and lectures his colleagues about the importance of committing to flying instruments, and not flying half contact and half instrument — or you will get confused. “Visualize your attitude through your instruments and you won’t have a thing to worry about.”
This cartoon draws from the contemporaneous work of Lt. Robert Osborn, who created a character known as Grampaw Pettibone in 1943 to enliven Navy safety tips for a Bureau of Aeronautics newsletter. Osborn was also the creator of more than 2,000 “Dilbert the Pilot” and and “Spoiler the Mechanic” posters, which delivered helpful reminders to US pilots of WWII.
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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, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
