To Ensure Safe Landings

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 37, 27 March 1931, Page 31

To Ensure Safe Landings

MANz novel uses have been found recently for the photo-electric cell, among them being :a method of --- —

preventing accidents when aeroplanes make a "blind’ landing in a fog. The combination of radio and marker beacons has contributed much to the safety of blind flying, in leading the pilot directly to his terminal field. It remains, however, to mark accurate ly the boundary of the field for the pilot concentrating upon his instruments, as he must do when flying blind. The pilot cannot look over the side of his plane-a useless waste of time in any case, for in a heavy ground fog there is nothing for him to See. Science, however, has provided a third

and highly: sensitive eye.in the photoelectric cell, which informs the. flyer that he has crossed the border of the field, and may flatten out for the landng. . A series of photo-electric cells are placed along the field boundary and the plane is equipped with a. special

neon light projector, throwing. a. wide beam downward. From an altitude of fifty feet, this light will penetrate a thick fog, and cast a line of light upon the ground at right angles to the

plane and sufficiently long.to cut-at least one cell. The flash of light actuates a radio transmitter that. sends an unmistakable signal, received .on the standard aeroplane beacon re ceiver. F .