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Congress demands Lighthouse Service provide navigation beacons after 31 of first 40 airmail pilots are killed. Sky as well as sea aids now under Commissioner Putnam of the U.S. Lighthouse Service.-May, 1926
Working as a volunteer for the National Park Service at the recent re-dedication and re-lighting of the beacon atop the Wright Brothers Monument on Kill Devil Hill reminded me of some of my research that began over two years ago.
While looking for information on lighthouse-related subjects at the Mariners Museum in Newport-News, Virginia, I ran across a picture of what appeared to be a "Fresnel lens on the half shell." It had some sort of motorized mechanism, and the lens was truncated and on its side, not in its usual vertical position. No other clues to its origin or function were available except the inscription on the back, "Safety Car and Heating and Lighting Company."
At the Government Documents section of the Birmingham, Alabama library, I unearthed some more tantalizing clues. There I found information about the U.S. Lighthouse Service's Airways Division, a little-known branch of the Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch begun in 1926. Although I copied and filed everything I found on the subject, I had not put the information together. I had only seen sketches of the triangular-based, three-sided beacon in the Wright Monument and turned up nothing when looking for its origin.
Not until I saw the beacon come on the evening of May 2, did the "Aha!" hit me: The Wright Brothers' Beacon was designed and built by the U.S. Lighthouse Service.
As I watched the Wright Memorial Beacon come to life again after over 55 years, I was reminded that the lighthouse service not only built aids to navigation for ships but also for airplanes.
In the days before radio navigation, any type of shipping was dangerous business. Shipwrecks and tragedies were a frequent occurrence. As maritime trade stretched its limits to distant shores, lighthouse services soon followed.
By 1913, the U.S. Lighthouse Service lighted both coasts plus 4,020 miles along the American shores of the Great Lakes, and 5,478 miles of interior and coastal rivers. There were 1,462 light stations guarding American shorelines and countless other aids to shipping navigation in operation.
The Lighthouse Service was known during the 20th century as the most economically run, civilian-staffed government agency in operation. It was under the guidance of Commissioner George Putnam that the service was given the first challenge of its kind in American history: provide navigation aids for both ships and planes. The early days of aviation were marked with numerous crashes and tragedies. There was no system of markers or beacons to guide the planes along the journey, like there were for their maritime counterparts. Airway beacons, the airborne counterpart to lighthouses, were still only in the planning stages, and the lack of navigation aids support took its toll.
Despite the risks to the early pilots, air travel continued to expand both in frequency and in the services offered. The first airmail service in the country was inaugurated May 16, 1918, when 735 pieces of mail were flown in war surplus Curtiss Jennie biplanes by Army pilots from New York to Washington in 3 hours and 20 minutes, according to an article by Dan Close of the Wichita Eagle.
But the primitive days of airborne mail service came at a heavy price. Between the years of 1919 and 1926, 31 of the 40 first pilots were killed trying to deliver the mail for the Post Office Department. These men were the heroes of the respective towns. Each was a great loss. And as the 1920's grew older, people demanded better airmail business. Moreover, people were asking for something novel. They wanted to go along for the ride.
But airplanes had yet to develop a reputation for reliability. The dream of the Wright Brothers had not been realized. It took nearly a quarter century until the concept of commercial aviation caught on. By the late 1920's, it was booming.
Many of the early airmail pilots lost their lives flying the old WWI surplus Curtiss Jennie biplanes that had little navigational equipment; just a compass, maybe, old timers say. And the aged planes couldn't handle turbulent storms. Often an engine was lost in rough weather and its pilot was sent hurtling into silent mountainsides or nose-diving into murky waters, never to be seen again.
But the roaring 20's birthed a bevy of airplane manufacturers eager to take advantage of the coming craze. The DC-1 and DC-2 were developed and flew their way into aviation history.
The most successful design was the Douglas DC-3, used for passenger and cargo in the 1930's, and war duty in WWII Amazingly, there are about 3,000 of them still in daily use. The burgeoning aviation companies of the time were to become the giants of the industry. Firms like Boeing sculpted streamlined planes of the future with their speedy roars of jet engines heard all over the world by the late 1950's.
Although air travel would soon take off, the early days of aviation presented a set of unique problems. Safety concerns and the inability to navigate in rough weather and darkness topped the list. It quickly became evident the U.S. government had to protect the mail and the passengers on commercial flights. The pressing need to expand lighted airways exploded between 1927-28. The U.S. Lighthouse Service (USLHS) was quick to respond.
Acting under the May, 1926 Air Commerce Act of Congress, the USLHS provided for the control of air navigation facilities, including the air beacon atop the Wright Monument and its landing strip.
As early as December, 1927, USLHS Commissioner Putnam announced in the Lighthouse Service Bulletin to all personnel, "An airways division has been set up as part of the Lighthouse Service; the work of this division covering the examination of airways and intermediate landing fields and the execution and maintenance of aids to air navigation . . ."
I can imagine the respected Commissioner Putnam putting head in hands in disbelief of this added responsibility. Lighting America's shores was a monumental job for sure- but to light the country's interior also? Nevertheless, the agency was ready to tackle the task.
The first airmail beacons were established by the Post Office Department in 1923. Over the next four years they created 616 aids to air navigation along existing flyways. The U.S. Lighthouse Service lighted an additional 694 miles by adding 139 aids in the last six months of 1927. With just a bit of experience in this new field of aviation lighting, the USLHS had distinct beams from "reclining" Fresnel lenses winking a go-ahead from 520 more beacons, increasing lighted airways another 2,450 miles by the end of June, 1928.
Trans-continental air travel arrived with major flyways like New York to Atlanta linked by beacons and the unique "Fresnel on the half shell" beams shining up like a connect-the-dot puzzle. Literally dot to dot. Flashing mechanisms on these beacons flashed Morse code to establish for each marker, just as timed revolutions or fixed lights established the identity of lighthouses. Names such as Topeka, Kansas, Salt Lake City, Utah, Cheyenne, Wyoming soon appeared in USLHS annual reports along with the venerable light station names Key West, Florida, and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
The legacy the Wright Brothers left on Kill Devil Hill was now beginning to be realized. From seaships to airships, the cycle of inventions to aid inventions, continued in a grand, spinning web of technology and improvement.
The Wright Monument that was re-lighted on May 2, 1998, was built not only as a monument to the two brothers, but also as a lighthouse for airplanes. The Fresnel lens at the top of the monument is a rare surviving artifact if the old Airways Division of the Aeronautics Branch of the U.S. Lighthouse Service in the Department of Commerce.
The practice of recycling the beautiful, hand-crafted lenses was relatively commonplace by the mid-1920's. In 1927, when more than 200 Light Service aids to navigation were discontinued due to the advent of radio navigation, there was a triple increase in aids to aviation, all within the same government agency: the civilian-staffed United States Lighthouse Service. It's not at all unlikely that the three-sided Wright Memorial Beacon is made from surplus Fresnel panels from darkened lighthouses.
From our home in Nags Head, I can see the Wright Memorial. But now as I watch the beacon on the top of Kill Devil Hill come on each night, I see the memorial differently. I see a Lighthouse and airplane beacon that shines in memorial to the two men who succeeded in its pioneering attempt to provide safe passage for mariners on the sea and in the air by lighting the ground far below.
Shown here is the partially completed application for the Wright Memorial Beacon on top of the Wright Monument. This document was found recently in the files of the National Park Service on Roanoke Island, NC. Apparently, the copy was made before the application was signed and dated. The application form is from the Aeronautics Branch, Airways Division of the Lighthouse Service. It is an extremely rare document, because a fire in the library of the Department of Commerce building in Washington, DC destroyed many of the old records.
This story appeared in the
August 1998 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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