Flying the Beam

Henry R. Lehrer

Description

With air travel a regular part of daily life in North America, we tend to take the infrastructure that makes it possible for granted. However, the systems, regulations, and technologies of civil aviation are in fact the product of decades of experimentation and political negotiation, much of it connected to the development of the airmail as the first commercially sustainable use of airplanes. From the lighted airways of the 1920s through the radio navigation system in place by the time of World War II, this book explores the conceptualization and ultimate construction of the initial US airways systems.The daring exploits of the earliest airmail pilots are well documented, but the underlying story of just how brick-and-mortar construction, radio research and improvement, chart and map preparation, and other less glamorous aspects of aviation contributed to the system we have today has been understudied. Flying the Beam traces the development of aeronautical navigation of the US airmail airways from 1917 to 1941. Chronologically organized, the book draws on period documents, pilot memoirs, and firsthand investigation of surviving material remains in the landscape to trace the development of the system. The author shows how visual cross-country navigation, only possible in good weather, was developed into all-weather "blind flying." The daytime techniques of "following railroads and rivers" were supplemented by a series of lighted beacons (later replaced by radio towers) crisscrossing the country to allow nighttime transit of long-distance routes, such as the one between New York and San Francisco. Although today's airway system extends far beyond the continental US and is based on digital technologies, the way pilots navigate from place to place basically uses the same infrastructure and procedures that were pioneered almost a century earlier. While navigational electronics have changed greatly over the years, actually "flying the beam" has changed very little.
Preface

Chapter 1: Frustrating Beginnings (1917–1919)

Chapter 2: “I Follow Roads, Rivers, and Rail Lines” (1920–1924)

Chapter 3: Lighted Airways (1925–1928)

Chapter 4: Radio Range and Blind Flying: Almost a Decade of Monumental Aeronautical Growth (1929–1936)

Chapter 5: Aviation Reaches for Maturity (1937–1941)

Chapter 6: Epilogue: Looking Back, Looking Forward, One Last Time

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Transportation
• History
• Aviation

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juillet 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612493398
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

FLYING THE BEAM
Henry R. Lehrer s Flying the Beam is a lucid and well-researched recounting of the US airmail revolution. Lehrer, an accomplished pilot, knows what he s writing about. His anecdotes about the Transcontinental Airway (the route that stretched out 3,000 miles from New York City to San Francisco) are awesome. This is an essential contribution to aviation history. Highly recommended!
-Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University, CBS News Commentator, and Author of Wheels For the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress
Flying the Beam is a great addition in the history of early aviation technology. As a career aviator, I missed the background of the development of aeronautical navigation techniques in my early training. This landmark book fills this gap in our knowledge and understanding of the huge sacrifices and creative energy that went into making the USA s the safest aviation system in the world. Any aviator who has flown a small single-engine aircraft during the night, over mountains, and in instrument conditions will appreciate the history of navigational development in Flying the Beam . We tip our hats to those brother and sister aviators who went before us.
-Allen L. Hamilton, Retired FedEx Captain and Flying Tiger Line, Inc., Veteran
In a masterful study, Henry R. Lehrer has presented the reader with an intriguing and fascinating story of the development of the US airmail airways from 1917-1941. Covering the infancy of the airmail service that initially used roads, railroads, and rivers to navigate, the author then goes on to reveal, in great detail, the development of reliable airplanes, construction of airports and their runways systems, as well as lighting, beacons, and electronic instrumentations that made the endeavor so successful. The study will appeal to both the generalist and the specialist interested in a vital aviation story, and the extensive bibliography will provide the reader with additional information regarding the forerunner to air travel we take for granted today. As a pilot, Lehrer knows his materials very well.
-Justin Libby, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
All of us in aviation have a story about how we started our journey in the aviation industry, but none of us have Hank Lehrer s beat in terms of the connection of his career to the first Transcontinental Airway. In this well-documented and well-organized treatise, Lehrer gives all of us a lesson on why we need to look back to go forward. By 1938, the federal airways system included 2,374 airports and 256 lighted intermediate airfields, supported by 23,723 miles of lighted airways. Together, this system supported over 1.3 million passengers. Like Lehrer s outstanding work in Flying the Beam, this was a huge accomplishment!
-David A. NewMyer, PhD, Professor and Chair, Aviation Management and Flight, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
FLYING THE BEAM
Navigating the Early US Airmail Airways, 1917-1941
Henry R. Lehrer
Purdue University Press | West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright 2014 by Henry R. Lehrer. All rights reserved. Cataloging-in-Publication data on file at the Library of Congress.
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1
Frustrating Beginnings (1917-1919)
Chapter 2
I Follow Roads, Rivers, and Rail Lines (1920-1924)
Chapter 3
Lighted Airways (1925-1928)
Chapter 4
Radio Range and Blind Flying: Almost a Decade of Monumental Aeronautical Growth (1929-1936)
Chapter 5
Aviation Reaches for Maturity (1937-1941)
Chapter 6
Epilogue: Looking Back, Looking Forward, One Last Time
Bibliography
Index
Preface





The topic of this book is a very personal and passionate one for me since I spent the bulk of my life living under or near the aerial pathway originally designated as the first Transcontinental Airway. Geographically speaking, the original track for the airway is virtually the same as today s US Airway Victor 6, and topographically defined by US Highway 6 and Interstate Highway I80; in earlier years, the same airspace was designated Green 3. My home today is located just below what would have been the route taken by the early airmail pilots.
The Transcontinental Airway stretched almost three thousand miles from New York City through Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Salt Lake City, Reno, and terminated in San Francisco. The route, when completed in the 1920s, was the longest lighted aerial pathway in the world. Over the years, I have visited many of the sites of former airmail airports, lighted beacon positions, and radio range locations on this route. I also taught many individuals to fly at airports that were once original stops along the route. In another time in another city much further west, my daily commute to work took me past the original location of an airmail field on the same route. These seemingly subliminal reminders of the story I am about to tell have had a compelling and truly captivating effect on me for a very long time.
Today, the US air transportation system is approaching the century mark, and travel by air has become a part of our daily lives. However, few people realize that a major catalyst in the amazing growth of the US commercial aviation industry was the establishment of the US Airmail system and its associated infrastructure. Following World War I, many thought there was little practical purpose for the airplane, and any newfangled idea for its use was foolish and doomed for failure. Nevertheless, in response to the airmail system s need for better and faster airplanes, more airports, and a reliable all-weather navigation scheme, a mode of conveyance like none other came into being. 1
Currently, the airplane and its associated uses are truly technological marvels. People can travel quickly, easily, and safely from one side of the country to the other while goods and products appropriate for air shipment can arrive at one s door often overnight. Commercial aviation has become an engine for economic growth, employment, and contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the US. The Air Transport Association of America (today known as Airlines for America), a trade organization made up of the US airlines, reported that in 2009, the certificated US air carriers generated over $1.2 trillion in economic activity and almost 1.1 million jobs. In addition, Airlines for America continues to champion the development of a strong commercial aviation infrastructure as the silver threads that sew the world together. 2
The significant economic impact of commercial aviation in general, and the importance of airmail service in particular, is not a new phenomenon. The Air Transport Association of America (ATA), formed in 1936 in Chicago, has always played an important role in tracking the industry s fiscal health. A 1937 report by ATA President Edgar S. Gorrell stated that:
In ten brief years, the growth of air transportation in adaptability and popular usefulness has been almost unbelievable. It is conservative to say that the airways will, at no distant date, take a substantial place among the world s principal lanes of transport and travel. Any medium that reduces the element of time in travel and communications, will eventually assume a commanding role in the affairs of man. 3
Gorrell s assertions were not without credibility. The ATA s first annual report in 1937, Little Known Facts , stated that domestic airmail carried from fiscal years 1927-37 was increasing by 50 percent each year. Predictions were that soon air transportation will be carrying mail at the rate of 25 million lbs. per year. In addition, the same report noted that in the previous five years, revenues from passenger service by these same mail-carrying, contractor airlines had increased rapidly. Visionaries even thought that at some point, passenger travel revenues might exceed the income for the government s airmail subsidies. 4
Others already have chronicled the daring exploits of the early airmail pilots. However, the underlying story of just how brick-and-mortar construction, radio research and improvement, aeronautical navigation, chart and map preparation, and similar but less glamorous aspects of aviation appears only in widely scattered papers and essays. Weaving them together into a cohesive and accurate story is a primary focus of this document.
Flying the Beam describes the aspects surrounding the development of aeronautical navigation of the US Airmail airways from 1917 to 1941. Chronologically organized, the book draws on period documents, pilot memoirs, and firsthand investigation of surviving material remains in the landscape to trace the development of the system. Between these years, visual cross-country navigation, only possible in good weather, was developed into all-weather blind flying, permitting the US Post Office Department to boast, Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds.
Major sources of reference materials are the National Air and Space Museum (NASM); the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan; the Western Reserve Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland; the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute Library; the HathiTrust Digital Library; and the Purdue University Libraries. The National Archives, the National Geodetic Survey, and the NASM also provided graphic illustrations.
While there are many people to thank for their individual contributions, particular recognition goes to Charles Watkinson, my staunch literary friend and editor; Katherine Purple, whose wonderful literary eye took a rough manuscript and polished i