7/1/2023 0 Comments Airmail beacon map![]() ![]() Towers were built of numbered angle iron sections with concrete footings. Engineers believed the variations of beacon height along hills and valleys would allow pilots to see beacons both above ground fog, and below cloud layers. The sequence was "WUVHRKDBGM", which prompted the mnemonic "When Undertaking Very Hard Routes Keep Directions By Good Methods". The beacons flashed identification numbers in Morse code. Īirports used green beacons and airways used red beacons. "Ford beacons" (named after Ford Car headlights) were also used, placing four separate lights at different angles. The beacons were five million candlepower, and rotated six times a minute. The spacing was closer in the mountains, and farther apart in the plains. However, their effectiveness was limited by visibility and weather conditions.Ģ4 inches (610 mm) diameter rotating beacons were mounted on 53-foot (16 m) high towers, and spaced ten miles apart. ![]() The lighted Airway Beacons were a substantial navigation aid in an era prior to the development of radio navigation. In 1933, the Transcontinental Airway System totaled 1500 beacons, and 18000 miles In 1927, the lighted airway was complete between New York City and Salt Lake City, Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Los Angeles to San Francisco, New York to Atlanta, and Chicago to Dallas, 4121 miles in total. With a June 1925 deadline, the 2,665 mile lighted airway was completed from New York to San Francisco. Eventually, there were 284 beacons in service. By eliminating the transfer of mail to rail cars at night, the coast to coast delivery time for airmail was reduced by two business days. The first nighttime airmail flights started on July 1, 1924. īy the end of the year, the public anticipated anchored lighted airways across the Atlantic, Pacific, and to China. Lighted emergency airfields were also funded along the route every 15–20 miles.Ĭonstruction pace was fast, and pilots wishing to become airmail pilots were first exposed to the harsh wintertime work with the crews building the first segments of the lighting system. It was situated in the middle of the airmail route to enable aircraft to depart from either coast in the daytime, and reach the lighted airway by nightfall. The first segment built was between Chicago and Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was managed by the Bureau of Standards Aeronautical Branch. The lighted airway was proposed by National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and deployed by the Department of Commerce. In 1923, the United States Congress funded a sequential lighted airway along the transcontinental airmail route. I then followed this up by checking web sites, looking at topo maps, and using Google Earth to pinpoint the location of well over two dozen beacon foundations and more than a dozen intact concrete arrows across New Mexico.1928 Commemorative Beacon on Sherman Hill This accidental discovery resurrected the idea of actually finding a concrete arrow on the ground and spurred me to pour through the entire atlas to find more beacon notations. Two months ago while looking for a location in a map atlas ( The Roads of New Mexico) I spotted by chance the notation of “Beacon” on the map. ![]() But without a good starting point, I let the thought of finding one slip to the back of my mind. (The dogs and I accompanied Bob on many of his research hikes for the book.) I thought at the time that it would be very cool to find a concrete arrow while hiking in backcountry. He even has a chapter in the book about the beacons. My first encounter with the beacons was a couple of years ago when my friend Bob Julyan was working on his book, Hiking to History. The Post Office even issued 5 cent air mail stamp in 1928 of a beacon in the Rocky Mountains. Think about how cool it would be to stumble on one the next time you go out on a hike! With over 1500 of them there is a good chance that one is not too far from where you live. Many of the beacon foundations and giant concrete arrows are still out there for you to discover. As a result, the beacons were gradually deactivated and taken down. With the advent of radio navigation and faster airplanes later in the 1930s, the beacon network became obsolete. ![]() Can you imagine looking for an arrow on the ground to figure out which way to turn? With a cruising speed of 90 MPH, a pilot of a Ford Tri-Motor airplane would be seeing a beacon or arrow every 6 to 12 minutes. They were spaced about 10 to 20 miles apart along designated air routes. These navigation aids were built by the Department of Commerce in the 1920s and early 1930s to promote air travel.Įventually more than 1500 beacons were erected. In the early days of commercial aviation and air mail service, airplane pilots relied upon light beacons and enormous concrete arrows on the ground to find their way across the country. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |