The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1920-12-02
Radio Gives instant Response to
the Inquiry "Where
Am II"
DIRECTION FINDERS WORK
Wv Times as Easy to Get Lost In an
A'rpiane as In an Automobile, Be-
cause Of the Greater Speed,
Says an Expert.

New Iork.-The airpIane ordinarily
travels about five times as fast as IN
automobile or steamship, and this eX-
piuins why Ii is five times as easy to
get lost in an airpIane as in land or
water vehicles, according to John Il.
'antley of the Wright A%eronautical
corporation.
Dliliculties such as this, however.
seem TO exist merely to give someone
IN the ~aeronautical game the pleasure
~ overcoming them,' he said. 1.-THE
pathway TO commercial aviation a few
years ago seemed insurmountuble, but
now all obstacles have been cleared
away. In the case Of guidance the
nero experts have decided t use the
new wireless telephone.
There are no s%ignbOards in the air.
n by the time an aeronaut had cal
cuiated his position by Old-fashiOned
nautical methods he would merely have
placed one spot On the earth's surface
where he knew he was not located.
consequently the aviator. to supple
Inent his air maps while flying in
clouds. during low visibility. or over
unknown territory, must have some
last way Of reckoning his location.
Radio is rapid. faster even than the
plane, and Is therefore the ideal aid
70 accommodation.
Guided by Radio.
When the NC4 winged her way
across the ocean there was a skilled
navigator, Commander A. G. Read
himself, in the forward cockpit with
the usual Instruments of marine navi-
cation, but behind him was a radio
man who operated. in addition to the
usual wireless with trailing %antpnnae.
q radio direction finder. The mpchan-
ism gave him the exact direction Of
the nearest destroyer in the chain
stretching from Trel sSey to the
Azores. Merely by heading in the d.
rectiOn from which the destroyer radio
signals came the plane rOared her way
across the ocean. This was one Of the
first uses of the wireless as navigation
equipment, and II was of course crude
In aviation everything is crude which
fs more than q few months old. for
never did any other industry progress
so rapidly.
"ln addition to the landing field SyS-
ten which is surely coming In this
country. as 1t Is elsewhere throughout
the world, as commercial aviation de
relOps. there will undoubtedly be built
up a system of radio stations at the
landing fields and at other points. The
carrying Of directiOn-finding apparatus
IA Of course ~burdensOme in airplanes.
since besides its weight it requires
either an operator or part Of the time
the attention Of the pilot, who should
be free TO handle the plane. I'm the
stations themselves this apparatus can
be installed instead. All that the plane
will need IS n simple rad phone send
ing and receiving apparatus.
"'Where I'M I? Where am ~ the
pilot will inquire, speaking into his
tranSmittpr. Somewhere down below
perhaps concealed by underlying clouds
or mist. the stations will hear and al
most instantaneOusly calculate the di-
rectiOn and answer. Does this sound
far-fetched? Already navy radio sta
tons use precisely similar methods
save that they use wireless telegraph
signals and are daily giving locations
md bearings to ocean steamships OF
the Atlantic coast. The application to
airnIancS is q mere matter of eStab-
fishing stations and installing equip
ment on planes.
an addition to giving locations these