Top 50 Navigation Innovations
A fascinating look at the navigation aids developed over the years along with being quite educational in terms of the modern navigation aids.
So who would have believed that BONFIRES were the navigation aid that aircraft used for delivering mail between New York to San Francisco in record time
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It took remarkable courage to fly the early airmail routes in open biplanes in the years right after World War I. The fleet of de Havilland D.H. 4s used for such duty were known as “flying coffins” because of their poor safety record. Eighteen pilots lost their lives between May 1919 and the end of 1920 flying over the Allegheny Mountains from New York to Chicago. The federal government was about to scrub the airmail service, prompting the head of the Post Office Air Service, Otto Prager, to stage a dramatic cross-country flight that would impress Congress, the president and the public. In March 1921, four D.H. 4s took off across the country to deliver mail from New York to San Francisco in record time. The stunt succeeded, delivering the mail in an astounding 33 hours and 20 minutes and saving the air service. But the pilots who flew the route couldn’t have done it without the predominant navigation aid of the day: bonfires tended along the route to guide the airmail planes at night and in low visibility.
