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Emergency landing field beacon
Object Details
- Description
- Night flights became a necessity when the first transcontinental airmail route (2,629 miles between San Francisco and New York City) was begun in 1924. The reason: flight distance limitations of the early planes. To ensure the safety and success of night flight, the Post Office Department mounted beacon lights along the route to guide pilots to emergency and regular landing fields. In summer 1924, enough beacons had been placed along the western route to light the 1,912 miles between Cleveland, Ohio, and Rock Springs, Wyoming. The airmail service had 18 terminal fields, 89 emergency fields and more than 500 beacon lights in operation that year.
- The ground navigation support system beacons were 5,000 candlepower acetylene-gas powered lights which were installed at 3-mile intervals along western segments of the route on high ground for optimum visibility. They were visible from about 10 miles out. Because of the density of towns and cities in the east, beacons could be further apart. [meaning?: Before beacons were completed along that route, night flights were regulated to the comparatively flat 885 miles between Chicago and Cleveland. ]
- Emergency landing fields were set up every 25 miles and were equipped with rotating 18-inch incandescent electric beacon lights mounted on 50-foot towers. These lights were set to sweep the horizon approximately six times per minute, at .05-degrees above the horizon. On clear nights, emergency field beacons were visible 60-75 miles away from the field.
- Credit line
- On loan from National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Object number
- 1992.6604.4
- Type
- Loan
- Medium
- metal; glass
- Place
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Postal Museum Collection
- On View
- Currently on exhibit at the National Postal Museum
- Topic
- Transportation
- Record ID
- npm_1992.6604.4
- Usage
- Not determined
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