May 7, 2026
Please enjoy this article reproduced from a past issue of the Museum’s former Altitude publication with updates.
In the 21st century, when the global positioning system takes all of the guesswork out of navigation, there was a time when pilots relied on visual waypoints to keep them on course.
Signs along the way
“Naming of towns so that fliers will be able to distinguish them readily,” said the Winnipeg Free Press in an article in the summer of 1928, “is a need of the moment in Canada. On flying fields, at least, this may be done by setting out the name of the town or place with white-washed stones or boulders, and in towns which have no flying field, there are many such simple ways of making the place known from the air. It will not be long before large electric signs, easily distinguishable from the air, are as common as the present ‘welcome’ signs one sees entering cities from regular highways.”
Beacons along the way
In 1929 and 1930, the federal government funded a project to set up beacons across the prairies in support of a 24-hour air mail service.
The Winnipeg Free Press in its October 15, 1929, edition, published an article that said the beacon network between Calgary and Winnipeg would be done by the end of November. The plan called for lighted waypoints and landing strips along the route. Many of the towns included in the program were hardly aviation centres; for example, Oakville, McGregor, Petrel, Rivers and Arrow River in Manitoba; Moosomin, Whitewood, Mortlach, Herbert and Walsh in Saskatchewan; Alderson, Brooks, Bassano and Namaka in Alberta.
The main feature of each waypoint was a lighted beacon so that night flying was possible. According to the Free Press, where electrical power was available, a three-million candlepower revolving searchlight would be set up supplemented by two 14-inch course lights to indicate the landing course. Where electricity was not available, the beacon would be a less powerful acetylene searchlight. The plan also called for all the waypoints to be linked by a wired telephone network.
The Free Press said the “inauguration of the trans-prairie night mail service will have the effect of bringing Calgary and Edmonton 24 hours nearer Winnipeg and all eastern points so far as mail is concerned.”
In 1929, mail came by train to Winnipeg from the east, crossed the prairies by air and then continued by train through the Rocky Mountains. The Free Press described it as follows: “postal matter taken from today’s train at Winnipeg will be delivered to yesterday’s train at Canmore.”
A year later, the Free Press reported that the air mail section had been extended to Canmore and that there were 60 lights along the 600-mile route, an average of one lighted waypoint every 15 miles. The paper said “This will mean a lane across the rolling prairies with light standards approximately 70 feet high every 10 or 30 miles as the case may be. The reason for this is that the electric beacons have a light radius – may be distinctly seen – of 30 miles, while the acetylene gas lights will be visible for 10 miles.” The latter beacons were entirely automatic and fueled with enough acetylene to last three months.
The cost of this network of illumination equipment, according to the Free Press was $150,000. The newspaper article also said the network was “built to be permanent and with the idea that air mail has come to stay.”
Saving life and property
The issue of on-ground signs to guide pilots was an issue examined in an article written by Dorothy Rungeling in the October, 1954, issue of Canadian Aviation. Her page-long piece argued that Canada was delinquent in its support of aviation by not having an aggressive air marker program like the one then underway in the U.S.
The issue of on-ground signs to guide pilots was an issue examined in an article written by Dorothy Rungeling in the October, 1954 issue of Canadian Aviation. Her page-long piece argued that Canada was delinquent in its support of aviation by not having an aggressive air marker program like the one then underway in the U.S.
Rungeling opened her article with this quotation from an American pilot to a town where a sign helped him find his way: “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the nice large letters painted on the roof of one of your factories spelling the name of your town. Needless to say they were a welcome sight after my trying to find my position to no avail for over 45 minutes.”
Rungeling, continued: “we Canadians would do well to follow suit in this huge air marking program taking place in the United States… we should have signs to help the air traveller just as we have them for the highway traveller… There are no signs in the sky, and when visibility gets poor, it is very hard to distinguish landmarks.”
Rungeling’s article was passionate: “Why not mark as many towns and cities as we can and not only save the pilot up there in the sky but also protect our property, families and homes from destruction by a possible forced landing… This isn’t asking too much for the sake of saving life and property… it can save lives just as much as the campaigns for cancer and heart disease can – perhaps not as many.” Roof top signs will help advertise the town, she insisted, “Pilots aren’t just looking straight ahead… they are looking at the scenery … and when they see an air marker on a roof … free advertising for the town! And so the signs will do as much advertising to the pilot happily on course as they will help the lost pilot.”
The Great Beacon
In 1930, Winnipeg’s Hudson’s Bay Company Building became home to one of the most powerful aviation beacons in the British Empire. Installed atop the downtown landmark, the massive light was designed to help guide early aircraft toward Stevenson Field, Winnipeg’s original airport.
The beacon’s steel tower and spotlight reportedly produced two million candlepower and could be seen from up to 160 kilometres away on a clear night. At a time before modern navigation systems, the light served as both a practical aid to pilots and a symbol of Winnipeg’s growing importance in Canadian aviation.
Part navigation tool, part civic spectacle, the “Great Beacon” reflected an era when aviation captured the public imagination and Winnipeg proudly positioned itself as a gateway to the skies of Western Canada.
Ninety-Nines project in ’68
In 1968, the Ninety-Nines, the international association of women pilots, launched a Canadian air marking project at an event at Guelph, Ontario. The idea behind the project was to encourage marking the names of towns and airports on runways or other suitable surfaces. The organization offered to loan templates so airports could make their marks on the ground.
The article in the July, 1968 issue of Canadian Aviation said the Ninety-Nines “hope to have enough signs – legible from several thousand feet up – so that any misplaced pilot can read the name of a town or airport and find his (or her) location on the map.” Speaking for the organization, Barbara Brotherton was quoted as saying “while sophisticated radio aids and navigation are becoming more common, many light-plane owners don’t possess the necessary equipment. That’s where our signs come in.”
A year later, Canadian Aviation reported that the Guelph marker “stimulated much interest. The letters have lasted well and can be read from 4,000 feet up.”
The Ninety-Nines were still promoting air-marking airports three years later, according to Canadian Aviation, which went on to say that the organization was planning to encourage owners of major industrial installations to paint their names on the roofs of their buildings in addition to the airport marking program.
Elevator markers
A uniquely prairie observation comes from Neil Macdougal, a regular columnist and pilot, writing in the February, 1971 issue of Canadian Aviation, who said that “westerners make do with section lines and grain elevators. Section lines, fence lines, and secondary roads on the prairies are laid in true (not magnetic) north-south and east-west lines. To check you’re on course, you have only to compare the true course you wish to make with the angle as you cross these lines. You can also check your compass in flight.” He ended the column: “Pilots lost over the prairies may be surprised by the number of towns named ‘Co-op’ or ‘Federal.’ Actually, the name of the town usually appears in smaller letters below the elevator company’s.”
READ MORE
