I read Bob Buck's _Weather Flying_, in which he confirms that ADF mins
were 200 - 1/4 in those days.

Slow airplanes, low mins? ;-)

Yeah, the slower you go, the longer it takes to fly a quarter-mile.

Maybe people were smart enough to keep skyscrapers and radio towers away
from the airports back then.

It was a long time ago, but I don't recall that there was much sticking
up around military fields in those days.

One exception was that there were two tall chimneys dead ahead, about a
mile, when one was taking off on runway 36 at NAS Anacostia. Easy to
avoid in VMC, and I never had to go in there on an IMC day.

Developers and guvamint offishuls have gotten stupider since...

Plenty of evidence of that!

vince norris