Evening star., 1934-01-07

L improvements contributed to the in
creased safety and comforts of all
hying-multiple engines, numerous in
termediate landing fields and aircraft
Of remarkable strength and stability the
hazards of weather conditions remain as the
only obstacle to blind flying" The part which
radio has played in removing this last obstacle
is of great interest The United States De-
partment of Commerce has provided an elab-
crate system of national airways, augmenting
the radio with lighting devices and landing
fields at intermediate points.
Let us sit by the pilot as he takes off" ON
a night hop from Chicago to Cleveland and
observe the functioning Of the Federal air.
ways system.
AS he rises into the air, a message giving his
name license number, time Of departure and
destination are typed ON a teletypewriter ma
chine and automatically reproduced at strategic
points all along the airway. At Cleveland. this
information is attached to a little round peg
which is then placed in the hole marked Chi
cago" on huge map of the United States
Thus his position is checked and reported
he speeds eastward and each time the peg is
moved a little nearer to Cleveland"
A S SOON as the plane is in the air, the
- pilot is greeted by the intermittent fash
Of a giant rotating beacon. To persons on the
beam into the darkness, but to the pilot it is
a flash of light occurring six times per minutes.
He does not see the beam until he is close to
it, AS the beacon continues to revolve and is
obscured to the pilots eye when he is directly
over it. a red light. located at the same point,
becomes visible to him. The red light indicates
that he is passing over the first beacon light in
a series of ten on the 100-mile stretch Of air
way which he is flyng
AS the red code signal disappears, the beacon
again appears. This continues from early twi-
light to dawn.
As our pilot saw the flash from the first
beacon, he saw two or three more ahead of it
along his course. If it were not a clear night,
he would have been fortunate to have seen
even one. In such a predicament, he would
be forced to rely almost entirely the radio
range beaconS system.
In any event, he has tuned his receiving set
to the Chicago beacon and listens continuously
through his ubiquitous ear phones. The radio
beacon transmitters are located 100 miles apart
and each has radius Of about SO miles Each
broadcasts the letters "A" and M in the
Morse code, the letter "N' being represented
by a dash followed by dot and the IA by
dot-dash. If the pilot is on his course, these
two code signals merge into continuous
DASH interrupted every IL seconds by the
identifying signature of the transmitting sta
ton. If he deviates from his course to one
side, the "A" will predominant. If he is off,
course on the other side, the IN" will super
sede the long dash.
Thus if poor visibility totally obscures the
beacon lights, he may keep accurately on mis-
course by flying his plane that at all times
the long dash predominates in his ear phones
AS we approach the fourth beacon We sec.
instead Of red course light, a green one.
This signifies that Department of Commerce
intermediate landing field is located here. 1t
a plane finds it necessary or advisable 70
land, well equipped landing field awaits him.
These fields are situated so miles apart, ami
in case of motor trouble plane could easily
coast in to one Of them. Gasoline and sup