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posted by CoolHand on Saturday October 15 2016, @12:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the pointing-the-way dept.

Every so often, usually in the vast deserts of the American Southwest, a hiker or a backpacker will run across something puzzling: a ginormous concrete arrow, as much as seventy feet in length, just sitting in the middle of scrub-covered nowhere. What are these giant arrows? Some kind of surveying mark? Landing beacons for flying saucers? Earth's turn signals? No, it's...
the Transcontinental Air Mail Route.

On August 20, 1920, the United States opened its first coast-to-coast airmail delivery route, just 60 years after the Pony Express closed up shop. There were no good aviation charts in those days, so pilots had to eyeball their way across the country using landmarks. This meant that flying in bad weather was difficult, and night flying was just about impossible.

The Postal Service solved the problem with the world's first ground-based civilian navigation system: a series of lit beacons that would extend from New York to San Francisco. Every ten miles, pilots would pass a bright yellow concrete arrow. Each arrow would be surmounted by a 51-foot steel tower and lit by a million-candlepower rotating beacon. (A generator shed at the tail of each arrow powered the beacon.) Now mail could get from the Atlantic to the Pacific not in a matter of weeks, but in just 30 hours or so.

Yesteryear's low tech solution for a new high tech era.


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday October 16 2016, @11:39AM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 16 2016, @11:39AM (#414834)

    Yeah we're both correct if you image google search for 1920 airmail stamp vs 1940 airmail stamp. I was aiming for immediate post WWI for no apparent reason.

    Also I bet they had different stamps for post cards vs envelopes.

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  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday October 16 2016, @03:47PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Sunday October 16 2016, @03:47PM (#414874) Homepage Journal

    Yes, post cards were always cheaper. I don't know if they still are.

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