NIGHT FLYING.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17126, 22 April 1921, Page 4

NIGHT FLYING.

AIE BEACONS TOR CHANNEL , SE^yiCE. . CfBOU OUB OWN CORRESPONDKNT.) : LOXDON, March 11. A new. chain of aerial beacons, to. L» erected between Lympuo (Kent) and) Croydon, just south of London, will shortly enable'air passengers from Paris and the Continent-to make tlheir journey to London' safely in the dark. Hie beacons, which will throw a beam <» 100,000 candle-power and automatically light and extinguish themselves at dawn and dusk, are to be erected by the .Department of Civil Aviation. The Air Ministry ,. is. contemplating placing ono of the new lights at a p;6int near ; Lymjme, .where cross-Channel pilots make their landfall, and another nt Botley Hill, near Tatsfield, Surrey. In •addition., the existing aenal lighthouse at Croydon will be modeled mid improved as a result of tin? experience gained in its uso during the last year, and it will be moved to a new site on the route. These'will make a chain <-l three nmtn beacon lights, between London ntod the Uhannol, a distance of utont .-sixty-five _ miles. Smaller local pilotage' lights will also be built on tho aerodromes at Lympne and Croydon. Acetylene'. gas, dissolved and stored in cylinders under pressure, will be the illuminant, and the lights, whidh will bo entirely automatic, will not need to bb iouched for six months at a time, x "sun" Valve, which closes, under the action of sunlight and open 3 agtfili at dusk, controls the flow of gasi tojtho burners, while in Vhe event of a mantle burning out or breaking, tho apparatus automatically Teplaccs the broken mantlew-ith a neiv cne. An airman making his landfall at Lympne will set- two lights—tho main beacon • light and the smaller.aerodrome light, which, will give hjm his Wnrings. Thenceforward tho pilot, in clear weather, will always bo in sight of one light, and sometimes nf two. The light wili bo visible for a distance of thirty miles, at a reasonable height, say, 20D0ft, on a dark night with a clear atmosphere. The cost of maintaining the main beacon lights,is put at about £1 a week.