What navigational system was created specifically to enhance the speed and dependability of the early US airmail service? +++++++ 09-29-03, 06:14 PM Cyndiluwho_99 Well, I've exhausted my researching skills. I gotta take a guess at this one.... I think it was the beacons and landing lights which made night flights possible. Up until then, mail was flown only in the daytime and traveled by train at night. Am I close, Kwll??
09-29-03, 08:16 PM DorianGreyed Are you talking about the signs on top of barns?
09-29-03, 08:23 PM Sailracer "During 1924 and 1925, the newly created U.S. Airmail Service established light stations and emergency landing fields along its major routes. Their facilities were spaced approximately 20 miles apart in order to provide the airmail pilots with a nighttime navigational system. Although not every light station had an emergency landing field co-located with it, the light station located at latitude 28 degrees 37 minutes 20 seconds North and longitude 80 degrees 50 minutes 12 seconds West had a 40 acre lighted filed located adjacent to the navigational light. These are the coordinates for the Arthur Dunn Airpark. This facility soon turned into part of the country’s first radio navigational systems."
[http://www.flairport.com/arthurhist.htm[/URL]
09-29-03, 09:26 PM Cyndiluwho_99 I wish I could say Yes, the barn lights, but to be honest, DG, I was referring to the oscillating beacons and landing lights at the airstrips. I didn't find anything about lights on barns. Oh well...BLNT, huh?
09-29-03, 10:52 PM DorianGreyed I referred to the names of cities and arrows painted on the tops of barns. There were no lights on these. (I am unaware that there were, anyway.) Obviously, there were for daytime use only.
09-30-03, 07:56 AM Kwll Sailracer got it. It was called the transcontinental airway and let to the first electronic navigational system in the US. The airway used a system of becons that would flash a given number of times for each leg of the trip so the pilot would know his position. Mail carriers would use these at night since it was hard to see the lights during the day. This airway established the first basic safety issues for aircraft navigation and procedures. A good link is at :
