Early Airmail Service--Studley Beacon

Airmail service was initiated by the U.S. Post Office and the Army on 15 May 1918. Because of the danger night flying posed, airway beacons such as Studley were erected along the airmail routes between the East and West Coasts and Georgia and New York. By 1922 towers with flashing beacons were placed along designated civil airways. Studley was the site of “Delta Airmail Beacon #47” erected circa 1927, one of 50 in Virginia on the Atlanta–New York Civil Airways Corridor. The Studley beacon was dismantled in the mid-twentieth century.