Rrestoration of a 1920s Airway Beacon

I have enjoyed reading this.... the history, and the progress. I knew about the concrete arrows used to guide aviation, but did not know about the lights.

Great project.... I wish you well.

Lornie
 
Restoration of a 1920s Airway Beacon - Part 8 (Restoring The Top Section - C)

Please see the attached PDF document.

Thanks,

Harvey
 

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:saluteflag:

WOW!!!
i can't even fathom the work it must have taken to do what you are doing and to get where you are...
:man:

i really don't know what else to say other than, WOW!!!
 
Enjoyed the story Harvey,

reminds me of a similar one years ago at our little municipal airport in Robstown, Texas. We did not have a beacon and the county would not help us out as they felt the airport was unnecessary in their eyes.

Some of the aircraft owners got together and we found an old WWII military beacon and purchased it. The tower or what was left of it was still standing so we repaired that and set the beacon. Funny thing was the military beacon would flash green then white - white and a civilian beacon was green then white. Don't remember how we did it not but we rotated the inside 90 degrees so the white beams would shine at an angle toward the ground and the other was pointed up. Both on the same plane vertically.

Thanks for the story.
 
We still have a number of these in service in Montana on some of the mountain passes.
 
Yes, Montana has about a dozen in its western (mountainous) region. Back in the mid 1950s when the CAB (which became the FAA in 1958) announced plans to dismantle the still-in-operation-but-obsolete Transcontinental Lighted Beacon System, Montana's State Aviation Authority requested that the beacons in its state be left in place to provide continued safety through the mountain passes. The beacons were then transferred from federal to state ownership. Over the years, those towers and beacons have been modernized/replaced to the point that they now bear little to no resemblance to their original design.
 
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Very cool thread and project Harvey! Thanks for taking us along on the journey. I'm building a grass airstrip on my farm and wouldn't mind finding a good deal on a rotating beacon myself. Fortunately I already have some 135' poles to mount one to.

A bit of trivia... Back in 1996 I built some microcell sites in downtown Chicago. One of the buildings that I worked in still had the complete, original rotating beacon on it from the 1920's. This was the beacon used by the airmail pilots as they flew across the lake from Detroit.


Scott
 
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Harvy, aviation and aviation history is a subject very near and dear to me. Your passion is applauded and your attention to detail is second to none. The work looks fun as hell too, keep it coming.
Tucson is blessed with the Pima Air and Space Museum, it's the largest private non-government-funded aviation museum in the US. check www.pimaair.org
 
Restoration of a 1920s Airway Beacon - Part 9 (The BIG Day!!!)

Please see the attached PDF document.

Thanks,

Harvey
 

Attachments

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