|
Kate Hampton, MHS State Historic Preservation Office, will discuss Guiding Lights: Montana’s Lighted Airways. In the early 20th century, aviation was in its infancy, and navigational tools were limited to compasses, altimeters, and turn and bank indicators. Visual aids like landforms, waterways, and railroads were a pilot’s best tools for flying accurately and safely—and therefore they limited flights to the daylight hours. Through the late 1920s and early 1930s, the federal airway division installed a series of beacons across the country to guide pilots across dark skies. Today, Montana is the only state that still maintains these beacons—and the historic towers can still be spotted—day and night—through the western mountains.
|
