Q&A · 22:53-25:46

A land blind-landing aid was not yet a carrier landing system

German Lorenz-beam and radar-altimeter experience showed potential, but converting fixed land systems for a moving, non-revealing carrier required years of focused naval development.

Question

Could existing German blind-landing beams and radar altimeters have solved Graf Zeppelin's landing problem?

Short answer

They offered a technical starting point, but navalizing them for a moving carrier required time, testing, and cooperation absent from the 1939-41 programme.

Notes

Lorenz beams and German radar altimeters provided useful starting points, but a system proven between fixed airfields could not simply move to a carrier. It had to tolerate deck motion and operations over water while avoiding transmissions that revealed the ship's position. The FuG 101 radar altimeter had limitations over large bodies of water that mattered more during a carrier approach than during ordinary land-based flying. Later equipment arrived too late for the 1939-41 Graf Zeppelin scenarios, and inter-service reluctance would further obstruct Luftwaffe support for Kriegsmarine carrier aviation.