EW YORK IARCH 31, 1935
Plane to Test 'Honiin Which Miss Earhart Will Use
'IT"illiam P. Lrar a11d W' aco biplane in 1cl1ich he "ill malse Iran cn11tirtrntal fli,cht to tr t derice be/ore it ia in tailed in Miu Earhart'• plane
for hrr gnotl•icill flight to Jlll'xico City
Flight to Te t
Miss Earhart's
Radio Compass
Early th week William P. Lear,
president o! Lear Developments, Inc.,
will aet out trom Roosevelt Field,
L. I., In his Waco cabin biplane !or &
novel transcontinental "shakedown"
crul e~ which is to be a final workout
tor the radio "homing" compass that
Amelia Earhart will use on her forth­coming
good-will flight to Mexico
Ci y. The compass, a product of the
Lear organliatlon, will be tramrerred
in Los Angele to Miss Earhart's trans­Pacific
Wasp-motored Lockheed mono­plane
for tests by Miss Earhart in her
nf>w role of dollar-a-year consultant
to the Bureau of Air Commerce.
"Naturally, we want to make sure
the devtce 1s functioning perfectly be­fore
we turn It over to M Earhart
for official te ts," Mr. Lear plained,
"and the best way to do that is to
give it a thorough tryout on the waY,
to he W!!st Coast.
\\ Ill ' e Broadea,t Ouldl'
"I don't expect to break any speed
records getting there, since I'm stop­ping
off all along the route to demon­strate
the compass, but I plan to
navigate each leg of the trip entirely
by commtrclal broadcasting stationa-­the
principle on which the 'homing'
compass works."
Mr. Lear's ffrst objective after leav­ing
New York will be Washington. He
will tune In with his radio compass
"loop" and receiving antenna on
Station WRC, listening through head­phones
to whatever program 1s being
broadcast whjle a pointer on the In­strument
board of his ship warns him
whenever the plane is not headed di­rectly
for the towers of the broad­casting
station. He plans to circle
the radio stations before each land­ing
on the cross-continent cru
tatlon lay Help Flight
From Washington Mr. Lear will fly
to Clnclnna.tl, then to Chicago, Kan­sas
City, Wichita, Amarillo, Albu­querque,
Kingman and Los .Angeles,
using broadcasting stations In each
city as a focus. All stations will be
notified In advance so th t they can
make special broadcasts to the plane
if they desire.
In addition to giving the compa s
this practical test under actual aerv­ll:
e conditions Mr. Lear will make spe­cial
broadcasts during hla entire trip
for the benefit o! Bhort-w v radio
amateurs, with an experimental five­meter
transmitter that I.a part or his
plane's equipment. He also will be
In frequent communication with De-partment
of Commerce airways radio
,atatlons along the route on the regu­lar
long-wave bands allocated to this
work, the Waco carrying a standard
transmitting 11et tor this purpose.
Neither of the latter devices has any­thing
to do with the radio compass,
which consists solely ot an all-wave
radio co-ordinated With
antenna
AIR COMMERCE BULLETIN 225
" In tructlon for Airway Meteorolog­ical
Service" is also scheduled to be­come
effective May 1, 1005. It incor­porates
all of the instruction regard­ing
airway weather obserrntion , the
~hour service, airway foreca ts, u­pervision
of service, instrumentation,
and other pertinent information. The
publication will undoubtedly prove to
be very useful to the airplane opera­to1
· and pilots. The Weat11er Bureau
will advi e all air-tran port compa­uies
by letter when the publication
become available.
Broadcasts of Weather Fore­casts
on 236 Kc To Be Dis­continued
May 1, 1935
Broadca ts of airway weather fore­ca
ts on 236 kc by tho e radio com­munica
tlon tations equipped for
broadcasting on this alt ruate fre­quene:
y will be di continu cl May 1,
1935. This applies only to broaden t
of foreca t and does not affect the
broadcast of weather report on ta­tion
' regular frequ ncl .
Before the deci. ion to di, continu
these broaden ts was r a bed, all of
the stations mnking th m pr faceo
each forecast brondca t for 3 days
with the announcement over the ail'
tliat consideration wa · being given to
their discontinuance. List ner who
wanted them continu d were reque ted
to expre their wi h to the Bur au
of Air Commerce. Three replie wer
received, two from automobile clubs
and one from an air line, and the lat­ter
reply appeared to ref 1· to broad­ca
t of weather reports rather than
to the foreca t .
As these nnnow1cemcnt,.<; were re­peated
regularly by the broadcasting
stations for 3 dll · during a period
when weather ·oond1tion · w re such
that aircraft operator who Ii tene<l
tc, the broadcast would Jiavt> ui;ed
them during that period, the Burenu
concluded that they were not gener­ally
utiliz d and decided to eliminate
them for the present. Forecn t will
continue to be available at tations on
the ground where they ar receinid
by teletypewriter or point-to-point
radio.
Scheduled Air-Line Operators
Invited To Confer with Bu­reau
April on Problem of
Increased Safety and Per­formance
Rep1 entatives of the cheduled air
line of the United tate were Invited
by Eugene L. Vidal, director of air com-merce
of the Department of Courn rce,
to meet with the Bureau of Air Com­merce
on April in Washington where
they were to discu high-altitude fly­ing,
removal" of ice from aircraft in
flight, use of the radio compass for air
navigation and blind landing, trafl.ic
control at air terminal , development
of new flying equipment, and related
problems.
The conference was called not to dis­cus
either regulations or the present
airways system at this conference, but
for consideration of a number of prob­lem
yet to be olved in the interest of
increa eel afety and performance.
For example, the Bureau now ha au­tl1ority
to engage in development work
uncl has undertaken a pro"ram ·eeking
an improved craft for private owner,:.
imilar de,·elopment, in cooperation
with the air line , of t:ran port craft
and engine might be permitted sllould
funds be available.
Among other problems on the con­ference
program were high-altltuclc fly­ing
and further deicing exp riments
upon which one or more ail' lint:>R hn ve
alreacly been working. Also, the in­creasing
difficultie pr ·ented by traffic
control at air terminal were to be con­.
i!lered and desirnble trend in future
lighted ancl radio-equipped airway
adaptable to the more mod rn type of
flying were to be di. cu sed.
Tlw Bureau ha.· conducted detailed
te. ts of the raclio compa. . for u. · In
nir navigation, and ali<o for blind land­ing:
and was to r port to the operators
upon the re ult· obtained.
Amelia Eru.· ar , mp oye y
Bureau of Air Commerce at
1 a Year, Will Te t Radio
Direction Finder as Fir t
Project
Amelia- Earhart has been engaged as
an aeronautical expert at 1 a rear by
the Bureau of Air CommerC('. The
first project to be undertaken hy the
woman flyer who conqu red both the
Atlantic an(l Pacific nn I the ~ rv-
1 e t . ting of a radio direction finder
built by a <.'ommer ial company to pec­ification
drawn up by the Bureau of
Air Commer<'e.
The tel"t .flights that Mi Earhart
will make with the new Lear radio cll­re<
·tion finder (not t11e Kreu. i radio
compa!, mentioned elsewhere in this
I sue) are de lgned primarily to deter­mine
Its Po ibllities a an air naviga­tion
aid for private owners ot aircraft.
The Bureau'· engineers and pilot are
making technical checks--Miss Ear­hart
will have the direction fl.oder in-
3 -I