Flying by Night

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 28, 24 January 1930, Page 7

Flying by Night

NIGHT-FLYIN G pilotg are enabled by a new device to switch on all the lights of an aerodrome below before landing. The pilot drops from a height of-between 600 and 1000 feet an ignited flare. In a moment all the boundary lights, obstruction lights, and flood searchlights spring to life. The lights ‘are controlled by a light-sensitive electric cell placed on top of a concrete pillar about three feet high within a triangle of coloured lights, showing the position of the landing ground. When within 200 feet of the cell the dropped . flare causes a tiny electric current to pass. . The current is amplified in a series of relays, ultimately allowing a power ful current to travel through the aerodrome lighting circuit, and thus turning on every landing light, Once lit the lighting remains switched on. till it is turned off by pressing a button, which also resets’ the relay and places the entire device ready for further use. The apparatus is the invention of a Spanish engineer, who is at present in London with the intention of bringing his device before the notice of the English aerodrome authorities,