Plain English Meaning

An older radio navigation system that figured out where an aircraft was by timing how long signals took to arrive from several ground stations. By comparing the timing of those signals, the receiver could plot the aircraft's position on a map.

Full Definition

A ground-based, low-frequency radio navigation system that determines an aircraft's position by measuring the time difference between pulsed signals received from a chain of fixed transmitter stations. A master station and two or more secondary stations transmit synchronized pulses; the receiver calculates position by comparing the arrival times of these signals. LORAN C operated in the 90 to 110 kHz band and provided long-range land and sea before being largely replaced by .