PILOTS IN THE AIR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20103, 23 March 1928, Page 11

PILOTS IN THE AIR

SEEING AT NIGHT EXPERIMENTS IN AMERICA. By merely watching the fluctuation - of a vibrating hand in a meter mount ed on the instrument board of thei? planes, air mail pilots flying twice daily between New York and Chicago ; have been able to “sec’ their way, | regardless of night, fog, or other at- 1 mospheric obstructions. They navigated along sky roads ! marked by radio waves, keeping- to i “the road” ainj proceeding to thei •! landing field with the speed of ex- ; press flyers. Experiments that have ’ | been in progress for tho last month have been successful. Signals from a radio beacon station I affect the pilot’s direction fiftdej sethat, if the plane is flying off it; course, the hand on tho dashboard clock will run off the straight to the ■ side of the flying error. If he holds : his course correctly, the hand points i upright. Previously it was necessary i for the pilot to listen to the signals I with ear phones. The new tests en ; able him to follow his course by bea • con signals for 100 miles. Engineers say they believe that, by locating sta- j itions 200 miles apart, successful bea'con guirJfing may be accomplished.