8/16/2023 0 Comments Airmail beacon mapThe program was an immediate success and continued to expand throughout its operational life. These less-common emergency field beacons were visible up to 75 miles away. The fields were constructed with rotating incandescent electric lights mounted on 50-foot towers set to sweep six times per minute. To accommodate for emergencies, intermediate landing fields were established every 25 miles along the route. Below the main white beacon, a secondary set of red and green lights would flash a Morse Code letter to identify the beacon to pilots. In clear weather the beacon lights could be seen for 10 miles (16 km). At the top of the towers, a rotating beacon with 5,000 candlepower and would flash every ten seconds. The first towers contained acetylene-gas powered lights which were fed by fuel stored in a shed at the base. (L to R: beacon in concept, illustration, and execution) To increase visibility of the concrete arrows, they were painted bright yellow. The beacons featured a 50-foot tower with rotating lights placed on top of concrete foundations in the shape of giant arrows measuring between 50 and 70 feet long. The early iterations of the system used approximately 1,500 airmail beacons, each constructed roughly between 3 and 5 miles apart. A system of ground-based navigation beacons extending from New York to San Francisco would help pilots fly across the country at night and ultimately be the world’s first such system. The service was indeed faster, but it lacked flexibility and reliability of operations.īy 1924 the Postal Service developed a solution that was effective, if not elegant. Long before the advent of radio guidance or Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), pilots were limited to visual guidance, using landmarks to chart the route.įlying at night was out of the question bad weather and limited flight times meant delivery was limited and still spotty in frequency. On August 20th, 1920 – sixty years after the Pony Express – rapid delivery made a return to the U.S.ġ926-vintage newspaper advertisement for airmail serviceĪircraft of the era lacked the advanced electronics for navigation during night flights or through inclement weather. Two years later, a North American transcontinental airmail route was finally established. In July of 1914, French pilot Maurice Guillaux carried Australian mail 584 miles from Melbourne to Sydney – at the time the longest such flight in the world.īy 1918 the east coast of the United States had limited airmail service. It wasn’t until three years later the range capability of mail delivery aircraft was really tested. (L to R: early airmail flight, Boise Airmail Station, Intermediate Field with tower in Nebraska) His pilot, Henri Pequet, would fly just over 8 miles from Allahabad to Naini to deliver 6,500 letters. Windham used the event to generate publicity and raise money for charity. The next day, a large exhibition orchestrated by Sir Walter George Windham in British India made the first official airmail flight. By 1911, Fred Wiseman had conducted an unofficial airmail flight carrying three letters from Petaluma to Santa Rosa, California. The Wright brothers made the first flight in 1903, and it wasn’t long before pilots adopted air transport for mail delivery. It was not until the invention of the airplane that intercontinental mail delivery witnessed its next major breakthrough. In the late 19th century, reliability of mail delivery improved – but not its speed. When the transcontinental telegraph line was completed in 1861, it immediately rendered the Pony Express obsolete. Higher costs and poor economies of scale would see the Pony Express fail to win the mail contract beyond its first year of operation.Ī year later, the threat of civil war descended upon the country and resources were diverted to the conflict. While the Pony Express was significant in that it proved the northern/central mail route was possible, it was inefficient compared to stagecoach lines. Knowledgeable frontiersmen would race across the country on horseback, covering vast distances in shorter times. Nearly unheard-of at the time, this was faster than the more volatile southern route favored by others. The trip across the country was arduous, dangerous, and could take anywhere from three to six weeks.īy 1860, the Pony Express revolutionized transcontinental mail by offering delivery in about ten days. It was not until a gold discovery in 1848 that California became the destination for tens of thousands from the east. Understandably, coast-to-coast message delivery was nonexistent. There was no infrastructure and very little law governing the land. In the mid-19th century the Wild West was largely unexplored. Early Airmail Beacon Route Map circa 1924.
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