Posted on 07/07/2015 1:40:59 PM PDT by NYer
Fascinating.
There was one in the Arctic that actually was a disguised key for the Fortress of Solitude. You had to be pretty strong to pick it up and use it.
We used t’be the baddest ass on the planet .... ‘cause we COULD !
And pilots landed without navigation computers, glide slope indications, ILS beacons, and other aides. If they were too low the computer didn’t blare the message “warning terrain, pull up...” over and over.
That’s the second biggest arrow I’ve ever seen.
Darn, did not realize those guys putted along at 50,000 feet back then! Impressive.
Visible from 10 miles up . . . but they disappear when you get to 52,801 feet.
The “Shanghai Beacon” tower still stands on Third Hill Mountain in Berkeley Co, WV. I don’t remember seeing a concrete arrow next to it ... I’ll have to look next time I’m out that way.
I remember the new fangled Omni beacons that my girl friend told me about on my first long VFR flight assisting her in 1968. We had no radio, only a compass for Wichita to New Jersey so we couldn’t utilize them.
IBNLR
(In Before Nasca Lines Reference)
Wow! I wasn’t expecting to find my little hometown here in Indiana on that map. I’ll have to make a trip to the airport and check it out.
There were also things called blue and red airways. For night flying there were those colored beacons and you flew from one to another.
That's nothing.
L Ron Hubbard and Tom Cruise built these symbols to guide intergalactic aliens here to earth..........Trementina NM.
The Shelbyville Municipal Airport started as an emergency landing field in the 1930s for the Air Mail Pilots flying in the Light Beacon system. There was a light beacon tower sitting on a concrete arrow that guided pilots in the right direction. In the day time the arrows pointed the pilots to the next arrow. The arrows were spaced at about 10 mile intervals. At night, pilots simply followed the light beacons. There was an emergency grass landing strip located at the Shelbyville site. The concrete arrow is still in place on the Shelbyville Airport.
Gotta go to Greenfield next week.Will stop by there for
a look.Love stuff like this.
Wow !
Good job NYer
Thanks for a neat history lesson.
They also used to paint the name of the towns on warehouse roofs. Saved my butt one day.
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