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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0625.PDF
FLIGHT, JUNE 26, 1931 AIR SIGNS IN view of the development of flying in this country,the Civil Aviation Section of the London Chamberof Commerce has for some time Lad under considera-tion the subject of ground marks as an aid to air navigation. It was appreciated that, to be of real utility,such ground marks must conform to some uniform system, and it was felt that the time had come when such asystem should be introduced. On its suggestion, the Automobile Association has pre-pared a memorandum on the subject which has been approved not only by the Section, but by the Air Ministryand the Royal Aero Club. The Standing Committee of the Section, of whichColonel the Master oi Sempill is Chairman, numbers amongst its members many of the leaders of Civil Aviationin this country, as well as representatives, of the Auto- mobile Association, the Royal Aero Club and the Societyof British Aircraft Constructors. It has decided to recom- mend the system of Air Signs set out in the AutomobileAssociation's memorandum for adoption throughout Great Britain. With this end in view, it. is in touch with LocalAuthorities throughout the country, the Ministry of Health, the Aerodromes Committee of the R.I.B.A., TheTown Planning Institute, the Association of Municipal Corporations, the Rural District Councils' Association andOther interested bodies. The following is the text of the memorandum: — 1.—Air Signs are primarily designed to be of service topilots who have deviated from their course and who require to know their position. 2.—Air Signs will be more necessary where geographicalfeatures easily recognisable from the air are lacking. The positions of Air Signs should be marked on flying maps. 3.—Air Signs should be so situated that a pilot who islost may be able readily to find them. To enable him to do' this, Air Signs should be situatedwhenever possible near to a railway line. If a pilot, who is lost, crosses a railway line he should, by following it,eventually reach the Air Sign of the nearest town of importance. The positions of the Air Signs should invariably be thesame with relation to the town they designate. As the prevailing wind in England is from the S.W., Air Signsshould be placed to the S.W. of towns so that they run the least chance of being obscured by smoke. A pilotflying over an unknown town will know that he has to look to the S.W. of the town to find the Air Sign. Thefact that there is no railway to the S.W. of the town should not preclude the Air Sign being placed there. In certain localities it may be convenient to have AirSigns on Gas containers, but it is suggested that such signs should be regarded as additional to a Nationalscheme of Standard Signs situated to the S.W. of every town. 4.—An Air Sign should be capable of being distin-guished from any other sign, such as an advertisement. Advertisements readable from the air may increase withthe growth of aviation, and may give rise to confusion. Air Signs should, therefore, be preceded by a recognisedcharacteristic. It is recommended that the characteristic preceding anAir Sign should consist of an arrow pointing to true North with the letter N in the middle of the arrow. The totallength of the arrow should be 20 feet. 5.—An Air Sign should be of such a size that it can beread from at least 2,000 ft. Where the Air Sign is situated in a restricted space standard abbreviations of the nameshould be used. The optimum dimensions of the letters of an Air Signare as follows:—Length, 20 ft. ; width, 16 ft. ; stroke, 8 ft. ; space, 16 ft.Where there is not space to adopt these measurements, proportionately smaller letters should be used.The colour of an Air Sign should be white letters, where possible on a black background.Certain terminations of place names in Britain are sufficiently common to enable standard abbreviations tout adopted. Thus: —Bridge BG, Woodbridge WOODBG; —Chester CHR, Manchester MANCHR;•—Ford FD, Stam- ford STAMFD; —ham M, —ing N, Altringham ALTRNM;—stone STN, Wealdstone WEALDSTN. 6. An Air Sign should give the name of a place that iseasily recognisable on the map. If not situated there, it should give the direction and the distance to such a place.There are places in industrial districts, such as the sur- roundings of Birmingham and Manchester, that are notreadily distinguishable one from the other. It would be preferable to air sign these with the name of the chiefcentre, adding an arrow pointing to the centre named and a figure or figures giving the distance in miles. Thus,Prestwich would be air signed, say, " MANCHR," with an arrow pointing S.E. and the figure 4 denoting thedistance in miles to the. centre of Manchester. The arrow would indicate to the pilot that by flying N.W. he wouldbe avoiding a densely inhabited area. The position of this directional arrow, where it is used, should be between thecharacteristic North sign and the name of the place, so that the directional arrow will be next to the arrow point-ing North. This will make it easier for the pilot to recog- nise the direction of the place named in the sign. Thefigure denoting the distance in miles to the place named should be in the middle of the arrow. The length of thedirectional arrow should be 20 feet, and it should be imme- diately alongside the North arrow and 16 feet from thefirst letter of the place named. 7. The quantities of chalk required to form the character-istic sign, the directional sign and each letter of the alphabet are given in the attached schedule. These mayserve as a guide to the expense of laying down an air sign, the expense, naturally, varying in the several localitieswith the cost of transporting the chalk from the nearest available supply. 8. The price for an average word of seven letters inconcrete with a curved upper surface to the standard measurements is approximately £45 within a 50-mileradius of London. This price, it is understood, includes the provision of a lightweight mesh reinforcement of" Twiststeel " placed in the bottom of the concrete to prevent the formation of large shrinkage cracks. Abbreviations of Place Names for Air Signs. 1. Abbreviation of names of seven letters and under isunnecessary. 2. Abbreviations should be made at the termination ofa name in preference to the beginning. 3. Abbreviations may be of the following kinds:—(a)When a place has a shorter and alternative name that is in common use, this should be taken for the Air Sign.Examples:—Salisbury, SARUM; Shaftesbury, SHASTON; Southampton, SOTON. (6) When a place name is pre-ceded by the word " Saint," this may be omitted, (c) Certain syllables that occur frequently in place names maybe abbreviated. To avoid confusion the same abbrevia- tions should be applied wherever necessary. A list ofthese is given below : — — AN— BROUGH — BOROUGH .— BURGH — BRIDGE— BRICK — BROCK— BURN .. — BOURNE — BORNE— BEY .. — BURY .. — CASTLE— CASTER — CESTER — CHESTER— CHURCH — CROSS ..— DALE .. — DRIDGE— EN — ER — FIELD . .— FLEET — FORD ..— FORTH — GATE ..— GROVE — HAM .. — HEAD ..— HEATH — N . V—BRO. j . — BG "I >— BK . y— BN • \— BY '. — CSL •\— CSR '. —CHR. — CH — +. — DL . — DG. — N . —R . — FLD, — FLT . — FD. — FTH . — GT. — GRO . —M . — HD. — HTH — HILL ..— HOUSE.. — HURST..— ING — LAND— LEIGH — MERE . .— MINSTER — MOUTH — NORTH— ON -POINT .. — PORT ..— PORTH — QUAY .. — SIDE ..— STABLE — STAPLE— STOCK — STOKE— STOW .. — STED .. — STEAD— STONE — THORPE— VILLE .. — WADE— WOOD .. — WOLD .. — WATER— WELL .. — HL— HO . — HST. — N . — LD. — LY . —MR. — MSR . —MO . — NTH. —N .1 . l-PT••Uv . —SI. — SBL . ~SPL • V. cTA> SlU :\ . V—STDJ . J _ STN. — THP . — VL '. j— WD .' — WTR. -WL 579
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