"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:VJrAb.441007$HS4.3464811@attbi_s01...

Iowa City was on the original transcontinental air mail route. When they
switched from light beacons to radio beacons, Iowa City received a VOR.


Well, actually, they didn't. When radio navigation was introduced in the
late twenties it was in the form of the four course A-N radio range, VOR
didn't come along until the late forties.



(In the 1920s and 30s, Iowa City has a 500,000,000 candlepower beacon!
That's half a BILLION candlepower -- it was reported in the newspapers
that
area farmers were able to work at night, by the light of the beacon!)

These routes evolved into the airways airlines (and many IFR pilots) still
use today.


I have a 1939 Des Moines sectional chart. It shows the airway passing just
south of the Iowa City Airport. The airway is defined by A-N ranges at
Moline and Des Moines. There's a rotating beacon on the field at Iowa City,
and rotating beacons with course lights on the airway southeast and
southwest of Iowa City.

The 1945 sectional shows the airway now designated Green 3 and an NDB at
Iowa City.

The 1948 sectional shows some extensions to controlled airspace around the
Iowa City airport, no doubt to contain an instrument approach. The only
change to the visual or radio navaids is the addition of a visual ground
sign about three miles northwest of Riverside.

The 1953 sectional shows significant changes. The airway light beacons,
visual ground sign, and the NDB are gone. The Iowa City VOR is located
where the visual ground sign was. V6 and V8 run from the Des Moines VOR
through Iowa City VOR to the Moline VOR. The Des Moines VOR is located
about three miles south-southwest of the Des Moines Range, the Moline VOR is
located about four miles northeast of Cordova, Illinois.

The 1960 sectional shows a few more airways defined by the IOW VOR.

The 1964 sectional no longer shows the A-N ranges.