Airmail History

A friend posted this on Facebook - an article about concrete arrows on the ground used by pilots transporting mail many years back. It was pretty interesting.

http://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/...oss-america/

Thanks for sharing. Interesting read. I never knew these existed. Have to research and see if one's near me so I can go check it out.

As an adjunct to this topic, the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada has an article in its latest magazine, The Canadian Philatelist, regarding the air mail pick-up system used for this enterprise. It can be read on its web site but unfortunately one must be a member to do so. Those must have been exciting and sometimes down right scary days for the aviators. Nonetheless, I am sure their experiences had a large impact on how aviation contributed to our life as we know it today.

There have been other threads on the concrete "day markers" used in conjunction with the beacon towers and their rotating lights, the Postal Servive and U.S. Army corps of Enginieers early navigational aids. The towers are well know as they are shown on U.S. SC# C11, the 5 cent Beacon airmail stamp.

If the "pick-up system" is what I think it is, it would not have been specific to these markers. I think they were placed in conjunction with the beacons (as on the US Airmail stamp C11) used to facilitate night time flying during the days before cockpit instruments, and would have been used for routine air mail of those days as well.

Edit: littleriverphil posted while I was composing. But to add to the point I was making, these markers were put down in the mid 1920's, and the "pick-up" system I'm thinking about didn't come along until 1940.