America’s First Air Navigation System Used Giant Stone Arrows To Guide Pilots
Equal parts genius and archaic
In the 1920s, smart people were trying to figure out how best to use the new airplane technology. There were competing elements that believed that planes were not more useful than trains. Planes could only fly by day. They had to navigate by sight. There was no good radio system for communication to relay delays or interruptions of service. These were all problems that the railroads had long figured out.
In order to compete with the railroads, proponents of air travel proposed building a highway across the country, but for planes. The proposal called for dozens of lighted arrows that could be spotted from the air along with accompanying radio stations to improve communication.
The proposal was called the Transcontinental Airway System and it was adopted in 1923.
Highway in the sky
The Transcontinental Airway System stretched from New York to San Francisco. The system called for a series of lighted beacons to be placed every dozen miles to keep planes flying on track. Along the way, in…
