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Thread Number: 63489
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
Pre-Radar Transcontinental Airway System |
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Post# 860662 1/8/2016 at 01:12 (3,030 days old) by rp2813  (Sannazay) |
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 Remember Airmail? An Airmail stamp cost extra because Airmail was faster than railmail.
In order to make Airmail faster, in 1924 the U.S. Post Office and the Department of Commerce initiated the Transcontinental Airway System. It consisted of beacons and giant concrete arrows 50 to 70 feet long, painted yellow for visibility and spaced about ten miles apart depending on terrain. They guided open-cockpit biplane pilots across 18,000 miles of the national mail delivery network.
The system was built out between 1924 and 1931. The first route, between San Francisco and New York City, generally followed what is now I-80, particularly in the West. Some of these arrows remain, but how many is unknown.
A story that appeared in the paper earlier this week tells of a local pair of arrows and provided locations of some of the 125 arrows that remain in California, along with a brief history of the system. I found it to be a very interesting read.
Does anyone know of arrows that still survive in their neck of the woods?
Below is a link to the article, which provides its own link to a map of the TAS.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO rp2813's LINK | ||
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Post# 860664 , Reply# 1 1/8/2016 at 02:16 (3,030 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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Thanks for sharing this Ralph
I have always been interested in aviation history and this is something I have never read about before. When you stop and think about it, aviation really progressed rapidly thru the first 50 years of the 20th century. I love to watch any old movie that deals with airplanes, airlines, flying or pilots. Those first airmail pilots were very brave. It was a job that was devleloped as it grew. I live right next to the area where the worlds first airmail flight took place in 1911. The flight took a whole day to fly approx. 20 miles from Petaluma to Santa Rosa, CA. The plane is in the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Anyone remember the airmail stamps with the DC-3 on the stamp? I believe that they cost $.08 in 1960, when a regular first class stamp was $.04.
Eddie | ||
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Post# 860706 , Reply# 2 1/8/2016 at 13:39 (3,029 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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Post# 860708 , Reply# 3 1/8/2016 at 13:47 (3,029 days old) by joeekaitis (Rialto, California, USA) |
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| Post# 860731 , Reply# 4 1/8/2016 at 16:00 (3,029 days old) by alr2903 (TN) | ||
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Thank You for posting this. I enjoy reading about early aviation. I have never heard of the arrows. | ||
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Post# 860733 , Reply# 5 1/8/2016 at 16:34 (3,029 days old) by moparwash (Pittsburgh,PA ) |
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Great reading on early aviation..Locally aviation historians point out that the blazing glow of the steel mills of Pittsburgh served as a landmark for east-west aviators as well....though I remember a flight from PIT to Wilkes Barre/Scranton years ago where I swear the pilot followed I-79 to I-80 for the trip
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Post# 860736 , Reply# 6 1/8/2016 at 16:49 (3,029 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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There is a wonderful movie about early airmail pilots that rarely plays on TCM. The title is "Night Flight" and it was made in 1933 with an all star cast. The story line is about airmail pilots that need to get a shipment of vaccine, that is urgently needed for an epidemic, to Rio de Janerio by flying over the Andes. It was written by Antione de Saint-Euxpery, who wrote beautiful stories about early aviation. It is really worth watching if you are a fan of early aviation. It is beautifully filmed, and even though over 80 years old It holds up. If I remember correctly there is a scene where burning oil barrels are used to mark a runway for a night landing. When I was in high school I discovered Saint-Euxpery by reading a few of his short stories in an English class. They were so vividly written that I felt as If I could have flown one of these early airplanes simply from reading his intricate discriptions of flying. It gave me a lifelong appreciation of early aviaiton.
Eddie | ||
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Post# 860754 , Reply# 7 1/8/2016 at 20:25 (3,029 days old) by Gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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That's very interesting, thanks for sharing it. I'll have to do some investigating, being right along I-80 we may still have some arrows lurking in fields around.
There is a short stretch of the original Lincoln Highway (Hwy 30) here in Omaha, now closed to traffic but the original cobblestones are still there and serviceable. There used to be mile markers with original emblems from its construction on concrete posts but vandals made off with most of them. I remember driving on it as a teenager and seeing the mile markers. | ||
| Post# 860759 , Reply# 8 1/8/2016 at 20:46 (3,029 days old) by ptcruiser51 (Boynton Beach, FL) | ||
December 16, 1960 To this day I don't know the answer. This day, during a snowstorm, a TWA Constellation and a United 707 collided in the sky over Staten Island, NY. The TWA plane landed in a field, all killed. The UA flight crashed into Park Slope, Brooklyn killing many on the ground by fire and impact. One young boy survived, only to die the next day from burning jet fuel searing his lungs; pneumonia set in. What's eluded me is the fact that the UA flight was twelve miles off-course! I realize that radio/radar wasn't as advanced then as now, but twelve miles? Frightening. | ||
| Post# 860764 , Reply# 9 1/8/2016 at 21:50 (3,029 days old) by washman (o) | ||
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You'll like this :) CLICK HERE TO GO TO washman's LINK | ||
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Post# 860766 , Reply# 10 1/8/2016 at 22:02 (3,029 days old) by rp2813 (Sannazay) |
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I remember that for many years, maybe even up to the 1979 DC-10 disaster at O'Hare, that incident with the Constellation was still ranked among the top ten worst in U.S. history.
Here's a story for you: A friend of mine used to live off of what is essentially California's main drag, a section of El Camino Real which still exists in a 500-mile patchwork of roadways from San Diego up to Sonoma, and passes through town just a block from where he and I grew up and I now live. This street parallels and is less 1/4 mile west of the runways at SJC.
Late one rather foggy night around 1990, he was outside and heard a large airliner coming in at low altitude -- a few hundred feet -- for a landing. Nothing unusual about that, except that he could tell that it was following the path of this main artery instead of using the proper approach vectors and passed almost directly over his house. He sensed impending doom and then relief, as apparently the pilot or the tower realized the plane was off course and power was applied to avert an impending crash.
That plane wasn't twelve miles off course, but it was heading straight for the campus of a local university, complete with dorm buildings and one of California's historic missions. Of course, this never made it into the paper or the local news media, but I've never forgotten this story and how it might have turned out.
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Post# 860797 , Reply# 11 1/9/2016 at 00:46 (3,029 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc) |
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Liked the video of the B 727 flaps,slats,spoilers.Remember this from many 727 rides!For those who like watching airplane wing equipment videos-go to YouTube and look up "Steve vs the thrust reverser"Does show this equipment is dangerous!but neat to watch.He also "checks" the operation of B737 spoilers,too! | ||
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Post# 860918 , Reply# 15 1/9/2016 at 17:37 (3,028 days old) by Marky_mark (From Liverpool. Now living in Palm Springs and Dublin) |
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| Post# 860951 , Reply# 16 1/9/2016 at 20:30 (3,028 days old) by washman (o) | ||
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Here's one to long for Notice the lack of pjs and flip flops. Look at all that swell food! The professionalism of the flight crew! The ROOM! Was this real? It certainly was before my time. CLICK HERE TO GO TO washman's LINK | ||
| Post# 861000 , Reply# 18 1/10/2016 at 05:04 (3,028 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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Luxury Ten Years Earlier Now here is a video you all will enjoy! U.S. mainland to Hawaii, 1950 on a Boeing Stratocruiser! You could even have your own compartment complete with sleeping berths. Of course the flight took 11 hours. CLICK HERE TO GO TO whirlcool's LINK | ||
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Post# 861327 , Reply# 21 1/12/2016 at 04:02 (3,026 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc) |
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Love those old airline videos---back in the days when flying was really FUN!!!And the airline took care of you and did everything to make your trip pleasent.Now they do everything to make it UNPLEASENT and a drudgery!The Quantas video of "deadheading" the RR engine was very interesting!! | ||
| Post# 861344 , Reply# 22 1/12/2016 at 06:17 (3,026 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas) | ||
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I've also seen airlines "deadheading" engines on 747's by hanging them off a wing too. But I imagine that Qantas has to fly their engines much further out than most airlines and a speed pack would offer much less drag than an extra engine hanging out there on the wing. And less drag equals less fuel used. | ||
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Post# 861547 , Reply# 23 1/13/2016 at 03:04 (3,025 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc) |
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And all along thought those engines were shipped by truck or rail.Learn something new all the time.But for Quantas-guess the engine shop is outside of their country.So shipping by rail or truck-long wet trip????So the motor has to go by air. | ||
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Post# 861741 , Reply# 25 1/14/2016 at 03:15 (3,024 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc) |
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Washer111-thanks for the further info! | ||
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