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