WELL BLACKED OUT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 January 1940, Page 5

WELL BLACKED OUT

LONDON & COUNTRYSIDE TESTIMONY OF CIVIL PILOTS. NAVIGATION OFTEN DIFFICULT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) RUGBY, January 23. Home Office experts, basing their views on information received from six civil pilots who have been making flights over London, state that the blackout is so effective as to make navigation for these pilots often difficult. It is reported that even on moonlight nights the cities cannot be distinguished from the countryside at heights above 10.000 feet. Prior to the introduction of obligatory automobile headlamp masks, all the main thoroughfares were visible throughout their whole length, but now the small sidelights of the ears can actually be seen from a greater height than the masked headlights. One expert staled that the Thames was not so good for navigational aids as might be imagined, owing to the clever blackout methods. Although, as far as citizens are concerned, tlie inconveniences of the blackout of the early days have been greatly relieved in various ways, yet the effectiveness of the blackout of London as a whole has been actually improved.