Recently we were in Pueblo Colorado donating our time to repainting the state’s last standing Airway Beacon.
History In the early days before Foreflight and GPS, beacons were used as a guide to pilots during the night. Each beacon stood atop a 70′ concrete arrow pointing the pilots to the next station.
This beacon was #8 of the National Airway Beacon Systems Amber Line. 1500 towers were constructed by the Post Office in the late 1920s and stood every 10nm miles along the route.
Before the painting, the museum asked that we paint the tower “orange and white“. As we prepped the steel we found this beacon was in fact originally yellow and black with 3 bands.
In the 1930s beacons were painted chrome yellow and black. It was not until 10 years later someone had the bright idea to paint towers with the aviation orange and white that we see today.
Here at BASE, we love projects with historical significance such as these airway beacons and, there was much more we would discover. Under some flakey paint near the bottom of the tower a name was inscribed; Rosalie Chrisman Castle Rock, Colo 1930. A google search seems to confirm she was 13 at the time and lived nearby.
If you know of a charitable organization that has an elevated structure in need of rehabilitation, let them know about us. Each year we offer our services to select organizations at little or no cost.
Check out our website for more information WEBSITE
Comments