aviation
airmarks: road-signs for planes
picture from postersplease.com
in the late 1920s, early 1930s, before radio navigation was widely used, pilots of small planes were forced to use familiar landmarks on the ground as a way to find the runway they would hopefully land safely on. there was even a campaign started by the 99s (a women’s pilot group) in the early 1930s, the objective being to paint directions to the nearest airport on buildings and structures across the u.s., the result being thousands of enormous ‘road-signs’ for pilots scattered across the nation.
photo from skyscraperpage.com
when i first saw the photo above i imagined/hoped it would be pretty easy to find other brilliant photos of similar airmarks but it turns out that in the early 40s the u.s. war department demanded that all coastal airmarks be wiped out, all those inland to be left to deteriorate naturally. the result of that seems to be a frustrating lack of photos. if you know of any other enormous airmarks on local libraries, cinemas etc, let me know and i’ll try and get some photos together of the world’s largest directional signs. i’ve seen a few painted by the 99s on airfields themselves but i’d be more interested to find some more painted on huge structures like the tank above.
any ideas?
photo from airspacemag.com
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I recall seeing some of these in the backgrounds of old movies, and I ***think*** I recall seeing some as a child in the 60s in Texas and Colorado.
Does it matter which nation?
Milwaukee has a famous prank airmark near Mitchell Int’l Airport that reads “Welcome to Cleveland”.
Check it out: http://www.google.com/maphp?hl=en&q=&ie=UTF8&ll=42.991268,-87.883673&spn=0.00104,0.001776&t=k&z=19
Years ago the Intel headquarters building in Santa Clara, CA, had a big “Intel inside” logo on its roof, clearly visible from planes flying out of San Jose. Then it disappeared; but looking carefully at Google Maps I now realize that the outline of its elliptical swirl is just visible under the whitewashed rectangle at the center of the L-shaped roof, here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2000+mission+college+blvd+santa+clara+ca&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.495626,79.628906&ie=UTF8&ll=37.387624,-121.963501&spn=0.001432,0.00243&t=h&z=19
This is such a low-tech GPS
http://www.juzamdjinn.blogspot.com
Phoenix, AZ has one of these. Not too many people know about it because its not in Phoenix, it points to Phoenix.
Here is a little backstory:
Designed as an air marker, the sign is visible to fliers from over 35 miles away. The sign dates back to 1956, and was constructed by members of the Boy Scouts of America Air Explorer Squadron 13. The job took the boys five years of working weekends to complete. They used picks, shovels, crowbars, and dynamite to cut a bed for the 100 foot high crushed stone letters. The letter “I” in ‘Phoenix’ is 12 feet wide, alone.
The sign can be seen by passengers in aircraft coming in to land at Sky arbor airport as well as by drivers leaving I-60 at the Ellsworth Road off-ramp…” (from Rio Salado Sportsmans Club)
And here’s the link http://www.riosaladosportsmans.com/images/rssc%20property-g.jpg
Chicken anyone?
http://maps.google.nl/maps?t=h&hl=nl&ie=UTF8&ll=37.646523,-115.75039&spn=0.016446,0.033002&z=15
Here’s one - Strong City, Kansas: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3099/2402807293_51ca614885.jpg?v=0
Manhattan, Kansas:
View Larger Map
Oops, that link of Manhattan, Kansas: wasn’t right. This one is:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=manhattan,+ks&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=39.192335,-96.562706&spn=0.002033,0.003417&z=18&iwloc=addr
Getting lost was easy at those times.
Never knew that this method was used.It must have been difficult for the pilots of those times.If they miss the mark then what???
Also a way to find the next runway. Nothing is impossible.
My father was a commercial pilot in the early 1940s , they flew with a compass,a watch and a radio direction finder. His route was Moncton NB.to Gander Newfoundland(check it out in google earth)pretty remote even today.From some of the stories I heard, he would of loved to have had a few of those along the way.