[NJARC] Fwd: INTERESTING PIECE OF HISTORY

[Retevis]

My cousin sent me this. Thought the group would 
appreciate it. 

Best wishes. 
Bob Tevis
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> 
>>  
>> All over the USA, Seventy foot concrete arrows can be found in remote locations. 
>>  
>> Follow them, and they’ll point you out of the desert.
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> They come courtesy of the US Postal Service’s Air Force and will point you all the way across the continental United States. 
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> They were constructed in 1924 to guide postal planes in  the right direction as they carried mail from coast to coast.
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> These old planes couldn’t rely on radio as much at the time, so they used these arrows, along with beacon towers, to navigate.
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> The arrows and beacons bisect the United States  from San Francisco to New York City.
>>  
>>                                                                                                                                                                
>>  
>> The towers were 50 feet tall and fixed with gas lights t hat could be seen from 10 miles away, in order to help  lost pilots find their way. 
>> This is a model of the arrows and towers in their heyday.
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> World War II brought new advances in radio technology  that effectively made the towers and arrows system obsolete. The towers were mostly dismantled.
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> There has been an effort to restore and preserve  some of them, however.  Like this one in New Mexico complete with its generator shack.
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> This is a pretty cool piece of history, even if it was short lived. 
>> To think of those early postal pilots navigating like this from coast to coast is mind blowing.
>>  
>> 
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>>  
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/private/njarc/attachments/20150714/fad276fa/attachment-0001.html>