Eventually, there were 284 beacons in service. By eliminating the transfer of mail to rail cars at night, the coast to coast delivery time for airmail was reduced by two business days. The first nighttime airmail flights started on July 1, 1924. Lighted emergency airfields were also funded along the route every 15–20 miles.Ĭonstruction pace was fast, and pilots wishing to become airmail pilots were first exposed to the harsh wintertime work with the crews building the first segments of the lighting system.īy the end of the year, the public anticipated anchored lighted airways across the Atlantic, Pacific, and to China. It was situated in the middle of the airmail route to enable aircraft to depart from either coast in the daytime and reach the lighted airway by nightfall. The first segment built was between Chicago and Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was managed by the Bureau of Standards Aeronautical Branch. The lighted airway was proposed by National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and deployed by the Department of Commerce. In 1923, the United States Congress funded a sequential lighted airway along the transcontinental airmail route. The author points the way - Air Mail Nevada Arrow pointing east, giving directions to the low-flying pilots of the 1920’s
ModernJeepers can still follow some of this route on land and enjoy overlanding and Jeeping while imaging the bravery of these early pilots. No instruments other than a compass no fancy GPS just you, your plane and some concrete arrows planted in a line across the USA when airmail was first invented not long after the turn of the century. Your sweaty hands are holding the stick hard because the wind is rocking you something fierce and the wind-blown dust is obscuring your view of the ground – where your “arrows” are pointing you to safety and your airmail for delivery. Imagine it’s 1925 and your biplane is flying somewhere over the Nevada desert, just high enough off the ground to miss the hilltops and ridge lines.
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