RADIO RANGE STATIONS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25208, 12 June 1947, Page 3

RADIO RANGE STATIONS

CHAIN ALONG AIR ROUTE AID TO SAFER FLYING IN DOMINION A chain of radio range stations which will help to make flying safer for passenger aircraft operating from New Zealand airports is now being installed on the trunk air route between Auckland and Dunedin. The Christchurch station, which is being built on a site at Paparua, is expected to be finished in about two months. The Christchurch station will have five steel towers, each 125 ft high, and a building to house the power and transmitting plants. One tower has been erected, and the construction of the others is well advanced, while the building is almost completed. The Air Minister (Mr F. Jones) announced in Wellington yesterday that a radio range station was also under construction near Wellington, while the installation of a third station near New Plymouth was expected to begin in about a month. It was anticipated that the three stations would be in operation within three months.

The construction of the radio range stations to link up with the station already in operation at Whenuapai was delayed for some time because of lack of equipment and manpower. Radio beams along which aircraft will be able to fly blind in almost any weather will radiate from the four stations to form a network over the principal aerodromes of the North and South Islands. The stations will transmit signals along fixed lines which are laid over the main trunk air routes, and aircraft will fly out on the beam of one station until they reach the intersection of a beam from another station, which will guide them home. Paparua was selected as the site for the Christchurch range so that the beam will lie across the Harewood airport.

The radio beam system has its limitations. however, and will not assist an aircraft to land in bad weather. Its purpose is entirely in directing aircraft from one air station to another. According to the Air Minister’s announcement, certain other routes will also be served by ranges. These send out four separate beams, and auxiliary equipment called “fan markers’* will be placed at selected spots along the beams. These will enable aircraft captains to identify their positions, and know that they are flying along a strictly defined air route. Mr Jones also announced yesterday that high-powered non-djrectional radio beacons were being installed at the main airfields and strategic points along the air routes. The Minister said the radio ranges would permit accurate checking of the positions of aircraft within the area between Cape Campbell, Stephens Island, Paraparaumu. and Rongotai. The number of aircraft movements in that area already frequently exceeded 100 a day. In a very short time the amount of air traffic concentrated there during peak hours would have risen to a level which might introduce serious danger of collision unless the movements of all aircraft were accurately known and strictly controlled.