GB502974A - Improvements in beacon lights for guiding air-craft and the like - Google Patents

Abstract

502,974. Signal beacons for aerial navigation. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO., Ltd., and WALDRAM, J. M. Sept. 29, 1937, Nos. 26360 and 34878. [Class 118 (ii)] A beacon for guiding aircraft comprises the following, disposed side by side and so spaced apart that both lie within the angle of distinct vision of an airman looking towards them from any distance between about 3 and 30 miles : (1) means for producing a narrow beam of light continuously rotating about a vertical axis, and (2) means for producing a beam of light visible by the airman before, simultaneously with, or after the first beam, according as the craft is one side of, on, or on the other side of a correct track. Fig. 1 shows an arrangement in which two sources A, B, disposed one on each side of the correct track P Q, emit beams which rotate in opposite direction and are synchronized so that they intersect on the track P Q as indicated at 02, 03. In order to indicate a second course p<1> Q<1> for aircraft travelling in the opposite direction, there is provided a third source B<1>, the sources B, B<1> being blocked by screens on the sides Q, Q<1> respectively. Fig. 2 shows a further arrangement comprising pairs of sources A<1>, B<1> and A<2>, B<2> defining " up " und " down " tracks P<1> Q<1> and p<2> Q<2> which are 200U yards apart, the sources A<1>, A<2> being blocked by screens S<1>, S<2> on the side turned towards an airman who has passed the beacon on his correct track. The sources B<1>, B<2> are adapted to emit, over an angle alpha, a red light which gives an airman a tail bearing if he leaves the beacon on or near the correct track, and they may also emit lateral beams, coloured amber, green, and white, to enable an airman passing on either side of the beacon to time his passage over three lines the direction of which, in relation to the ground, is known. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specification 230,462, [Class 118 (ii)].