Show LAST BIG PROBLEM OF FLYING SOLVED radio beam will insure safety in bad weather chicago the dream of radio and aeronautical engineers that the day would come when n it would be practical to land giant airliners filled with passengers down an invisible radio beam which would penetrate fog snow rain or other bad weather has at last been realized radio communications engineers of the count rys four largest airlines at a meeting here agreed that the sciences of radio and flying have advanced to the place where so called blind landings now are practical they wrote a specification for a standard instrument landing sy system which ultimately will be installed in key airports throughout the united states the engineers have had an instrument landing system such as they described in their specifications in actual operation for more than two years at oakland calif more than 2000 landings by thirty or more pilots have proved it is sound how it works this is how it works A pilot flying the regular department of commerce radio range beacons arrives at a field which has the needed special equipment for the instrument landings he tunes the special receiving sets in his ship to the ultra I 1 high frequencies of ohp directional landing beam then he lets down through the clouds clones anfu his is altimeter bows his I 1 altitude is 2000 feet once there he aligns birn himself self on the directional 1 1 igind landing ing boam beam and flies files along level until lie he posses passes through an outer marker beacon a vertical radio ray at a point five miles from the edge of the airport at which he is I 1 aiming there an electrometer dial on his switchboard is switched into operation this instrument Is connected with his two receiving sets and it has two needles which show a pilot his relation to the radio directional beam and to a curved landing bearn beam sent out from a station on the airport the needles show when h 14 q 1 above 0 or r below the curved beam ov ito to the right or left pf af the directional beam ride hide down on beam I 1 once in the proper position the airman engages his automatic pilot operated by gyroscopes and thon then lets go the controls so that the benr sensitive mechanical instrument is flying the ship the human pilot merely sits back watching the needles and making slight adjustments of ithe the automatic pilot as need arises all this time of course the aar plane is descending at a speed of approximately 90 miles an haur when the ship arrives almost at the field eld it passes through a zone of sig nals emitted from a second and inner radio marker beacon the pilot simply sits back in his seat and lets the airplane follow th ehg glide beam which flattens out over the field until the wheels touch th he runway then he closes the throttles and applies his brakes |