Identifier at the pilot approaching the station. Nowhere to land here,” while white/green means “here’s an airport.”īeacon would also have two “course lights” aimed in the direction of the two Red, while airports would flash white and green. Wonder why the beacons that mark civil airports flash white and green? It is aĭirect legacy of the airway beacons. In the daytime, the numbered arrows offered assurances Way to cross the country at night without resorting to dead reckoning with aĬompass and stopwatch. In an age before radio navigation, the beacons were really the only reliable EachĪirway had beacons at regular intervals - close to 100 on the longest routes. Were no less than 46 designated airways, covering thousands of miles. Is hard to overstate just how big this network of beacons was. Of the Commerce Department at the time, and the Lighthouse Service was theįoremost authority on lighted navigation systems. Involved, as both maritime navigation and aeronautics were the responsibility It makes sense that the Lighthouse Service would be Maintenance was the responsibility of the U.S. Was a period of time where at least some aspects of beacon construction and Lighthouse analogy is apt in another respect - according to my research, there Transporting beacon parts ( Air Commerce Bulletin vol. Many accidents have been caused through collision with stock, asĪn airplane landing or taking off must continue in a given direction and cannot Notes that “if livestock are allowed to graze on intermediate landing fields,Īn attendant should be constantly at hand to clear the field upon the approach SinceĭOCILFs were not meant for frequent operation, mixed agricultural use was To get creative with their landing areas for any given wind direction. Says of ILFs, “Owners of expensive airplanes are not likely to risk operationĪlong routes where such facilities are not provided.”Īirports in this era were little more than large grass fields, allowing pilots Most had staff on-site to assist pilots in weather planning. They mainly functioned as a place where a pilot could set down and wait out the The standards of the day, that had limited facilities for servicing aircraft. Was harder to obtain and aircraft were far less reliable.Īreas without suitable landing fields at regular distances, Department ofĬommerce Intermediate Landing Fields (DOCILFs) were constructed along the way Having airportsĪlong the way was important, because in the 1920s and ’30s, en route weather Building the Airfields That Used the AirwaysĪirway strung together airports in a roughly straight line. Lies along the Chicago-Green Bay Airway). Them by their terminus cities for navigation purposes (for example, Oshkosh Into 34 numbered Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes, though the DOC referred to In much the same way as the railroads and early highways below, connectingĬities as the air mail system expanded. The Department of Commerce (DOC) did notīegin regulating aviation until 1926, so early air mail routes were planned Yes, the post office was in charge of aerial At this stage, it’s visual flying only - Jimmy Doolittle’s first “blind flying” experiments won’t be until 1929.Įxactly what the post office did. Modern aviation is barely 20 years old, and you’re trying to figure out how to create a navigation system for pilots in the fledgling air mail service to fly from city to city, across the entire United States. Post Office Department worker in the early 1920s. The photographs range from detailed close-ups to aerial shots that depict the surrounding landscape – mimicking what an air mail pilot would have seen back in the day.You’re a U.S. The couple will add the discovery to their encyclopedia. Other photographers get in contact to let the Smiths know if they’ve discovered a “new” arrow. “They want to know if there’s any arrows in their location,” explains Brian. History buffs who stumble across the site often contact the couple to ask for tips on embarking on their own arrow quests. Their arrow-centric site has taken off: “We had over six million hits in the last 12 month period on our website,” adds Charlotte. “We took a bunch of photos in Egypt and we just really liked taking photos, and we had a website.” “When Brian retired, we took a Photoshop class,” says Charlotte. The couple host a comprehensive website featuring photographs, coordinates and information on each of the arrows they’ve found.īrian, 70, and Charlotte, 67, have been photography buffs for a while now. Pictured here: Arrow in Siskiyou County, California, adjacent to Montague Airport on the San Francisco-Seattle airway and San Francisco-Redding section. The beacons were officially decommissioned in the 1970s.
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