About the addon:

• Bare bones navigation from the dawn of commercial aviation…
• Flying really low and slow in all weathers, day and night, no autopilot required…
• Following in the slipstream of Leon D. Cuddeback & Elrey B. Jeppesen…

If this sounds like your kind of flying, then we might have something for you.

“Arrows Across America” recreates the visual navigation system developed to support the growth of the US Air Mail system between 1926 and 1934.

This involved building 51’ long concrete arrows, painted yellow with flashing beacons on masts, every ten miles along 34 Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes.

About Version 4.0:

So far we have recreated

• 10 CAM routes
• 868 individually placed beacons
• 88 custom ILFs
• Arrows and the beacon towers with their rotating beacons
• Generator sheds including the identifier text and the fuel tanks
• 20 custom hangers, with animated hangar doors
• Custom items to add life to the fields, like cars, trucks, furniture, posters, fuel pumps, radio installations, 
  animated flags and wind socks, water towers and airfield watch towers, boundary lights and runway markers

Brought to you by Dave James, Richard Blows and Rob Cappers.

Installation:

V4.0 completely replaces versions V1, 2 & 2.1 and V3.0  These should be deleted before adding V3.0 to your Community Folder.

Don't forget that Arrows Across America Varney Airlines liveries for the DC Designs Stearman PT17 are also available at the following link at Flightsim.to Stearman PT17 VarneyAirMail

Another set of Airmail liveries is available for the GAS Stearman, from easyraider1960 also on Flightsim.to Stearman PT-17

Background:

Inspired by a discussion on a MSFS forum thread we have been recreating an original US Air Mail airway for the sim.

In 1926 the US Postal Service & Department of Commerce began contracting air mail routes that would eventually criss-cross the USA.
Each route was marked approximately every 10 miles by a path of 51' long yellow concrete arrows with flashing rotating beacons mounted on 51’ towers, interspersed with landing fields. 
The beacons have a generator shed and a fuel tank, and the Airway and Beacon number on the roof of the shed. The arrow points in the general direction of where the next beacon is.

Some surviving arrows are visible on Bing Maps, meaning that they are also visible in the sim, if you know where to look.

So, we have decided to recreate the whole 485 mile Contract Air Mail 5 (CAM5) route from Salt Lake City UT to Pasco WA, using original maps and research by aviation historians.

The route is mapped, 51 individually numbered beacon sites have been built to scale, with a animated rotating beacon, positioned precisely using the original sectionals & surviving remains.

If you want to find out more about the airway system, then these sites are a great place to get started:
Arrows Acros America
thesurveystation

And for an account of how low you need to go to fly the mail check this interview with Elrey Jeppesen
Jeppesen interview

See you on the Airway! We would love to hear your feedback and see screenshots of your air mail runs.

Acknowledgements:

• Megadyptes7635: research, route mapping and creation of CAM4, CAM8, CAM18, CAM26 & CAM32 
• RobCap1966: 3D modelling & lighting; CAM5 & CAM8 lead
• MrsC.: decal creation and logo design
• PipsPriller: original concept & research, CAM5 & CAM 32 route mapping & ILFs, documentation
• Mamu, Rhumba Flappy and the community at FSDeveloper.com: support in building and animating our custom models
• YouTube videos by Flying Theston, Federico Pinotti, MyPhysical World: help in with understanding Blender and the MSFS SDK
• Stearmandriver2: beta testing
• WaldoP3pper: beta testing
• The many enthusiasts, researchers and historians who have documented the air mail service and the CAM system, allowing us to reconstruct it for MSFS.

Disclaimers

• Not yet compatible with MS2024. We need to check all items for visibility and mesh issues. Also the beacon effect is not working during the day in MSFS2024
• Textures and effects for the beacons are stock MSFS but for the ILFs to display all buildings fully you should have the C53 Lower Loon Creek airfield from World Update 10 installed..
• MSFS bugs may mean that 
  the beacons 8, 9A and 10 on CAM5 do not show properly once Beacon 9A has been passed
  Similarly, Beacon 3A (Beacon Rock) on CAM32 may not always show.  
  On CAM 18 the lights all vanish when you cross a point between the 31D Aux beacon and the 32 ILF, reappearing after flying 20 or 30 miles
• Beacon 3A (Beacon Rock) on CAM32 may not always show. These seem to be an intermittent problem and we will continue to
  look for a fix as the SDK is updated.
• Some of the generator shed and hangar decals may flicker from certain angles and in certain lights. Again, we will keep working on this and issue a fix as when we can.
• In a tribute to the skills of the airway surveyors, many of the original beacon sites are now occupied by modern aerials and mobile phone masts. To avoid doubling up, we recommend disabling Puffin’s “We Love VFR” add-on whilst flying the airways.
• Don’t use the Dynamic LOD mod. The beacon lights will not show from a distance.
• You might want to turn off grass, we can’t always exclude these from the arrows.

Legal Stuff
This scenery is released as FREEWARE. You may use it for your personal enjoyment, but you may NOT use it in any kind of money-making endeavor, you may NOT modify it and you may NOT publicly distribute any copies of it, whether modified or not, without my permission.

Rob Cappers 

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Arrows Across America: fly the US Air Mail routes 1926

A recreation of the Contract Air Mail routes routes #1, #4, #5, #8, #12, #17, #18, #19, #26 and #32 from 1926, finding your way via 51' concrete arrows with flashing lights on 51' beacon towers. Fly the old way, bare bones navigation from the dawn of commercial aviation… Flying really low and slow in all weathers, day and night, no autopilot available.

Version History