SHIPS AND AIRCRAFT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 11 January 1929, Page 8

SHIPS AND AIRCRAFT.

NEW AUTOMATIC! BEACON

LONDON, Nov. 27. Intended to serve both air and marine navigation, a new wireless beacon is being erected by the Air Ministry at Orfordness, on the East Coast. The system to he used is a great advance upon all preceding methods (writes the aviation correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph”), and was invented and developed hy the Royal Air Force.

The beacon is comparable to a lighthouse, the revolving beam in the case ot the lighthouse being replaced by a wireless beam. The transmitter consists of a revolving loop of wire rotating mechanically about its vertical axis.

Any .aircraft or ship within range of the transmitter will receive a maximum signal when the loop is pointed, directly at it, and a minimum signal when it is at right angles. The loop starts rotating on a known bearing and at a known speed. The receiving operator, hearing the signal by means of a special indication, notes the. time the signal takes to reach the maximum, or,, more conveniently, the minimum, and calculates his hearing. From two beacons he would be able to get two bearings, and so obtain a “cut,” which would give even greater accuracy.

The advantages of the new system are:

(1) Great simplicity so far as the man in the ship or. the aircraft is concerned, only a wireless receiver and a stop-watch being needed; (2) Freedom from night errors and interruptions (which are the bane of present systems);

(3-) The ground transmitter is automatic in its action, and requires no wireless operator. The Orfordness beacon, which will come into use in the early spring of next year, will have a range of 200 miles, thus reaching as far as Amsterdam, the Bristol Channel, and Cherbourg. It will use a wave-length of 1040 metres. It is the first automatic wireless beacon, with the exception of an experimental one at Farnhorough.