Track fire

A route light was a device for the visual identification of an airway and facilitated visual flight navigation at night.

technology

It consisted of a lamp that was mounted on a tower in an elevated position using either existing towers or specially built towers. Line lights were set up at intervals of approx. 30 kilometers so that the pilot could always have two of them in view to keep his course.

history

A first 100-kilometer airway marked with lights was set up in 1921 by the US Army in the United States for experimental purposes. During the 1920s, airways were established across the country based on this principle. In Germany , the first illuminated air route between Berlin and Königsberg was set up in 1926 . At the beginning of the 1930s, several airways in Germany, France , Belgium , the Netherlands and Denmark were provided with route lights. They were in operation until the 1960s, when they were replaced by radio navigation aids. Most of the fires on the route today only remain from the foundations. Some of these towers are still preserved in Poland.

In June 1930 there were 21,000 kilometers of illuminated night flight routes in the USA, which were divided into 8 districts with a total of 1119 rotating lights and 416 flashing lights.

Received beacons

Bobruvka (49 27 27 N 16 4 29 O)
Ceska Bela (49 38 7 N 15 41 34 O)
Czachów (52 54 55 N 14 15 38 O)
Kosierzewo (54.29348 N 16.689518 O)
Kurozwęcz (54 ° 3'21 "N 16 ° 16'4" E)
Lecze (54.268060 N 19.488300 O)
Candlesticks (51.138338 N 16.778209 O)
Naborow (51.276075 N 16.652258 O)
Nowakowo (54.214980 N 19.369140 O)
Niederkirch (50.475178 N 18.248802 O)
Ostrowite (52 ° 22'35 "N 18 ° 2'44" E)
Katarzyna (52 ° 19'45 "N 18 ° 53'16" E)
Ruszki (52 ° 16'6 "N 20 ° 9'54 ° E)
Sanka (50 ° 4'25 "N 19 ° 39'8" E)

Web links

Map from 1938 with line lights
Streets of lights in air traffic. - geschichtsspuren.de
Erection of an iron lattice mast for flight route lights. - German digital library

Individual evidence

^ Sandro Fehr: Invisible traffic routes. From the visual flight of the pioneers to the international airway system. In: ViaStoria - Foundation for traffic history (ed.): Ways and history . tape 2011/2 , p. 35–40 ( chapters online on Researchgate ).
↑ Carl Pirath : The basics of air traffic control. (PDF). Springer Verlag, Heidelberg 1932. (Reprint: ISBN 978-3-540-01178-1 )

[1] Sandro Fehr: Invisible traffic routes. From the visual flight of the pioneers to the international airway system. In: ViaStoria - Foundation for traffic history (ed.): Ways and history . tape 2011/2 , p. 35–40 ( chapters online on Researchgate ).

[2] Carl Pirath : The basics of air traffic control. (PDF). Springer Verlag, Heidelberg 1932. (Reprint: ISBN 978-3-540-01178-1 )