T
he world’s first air-to-ground wireless communication may have occurred on Aug.
27,
1910 when Canadian aviation pioneer John Alexander Douglas McCurdy transmitted a Morse code message to Army Air Service Capt. Henry M. Horton, as McCurdy flew over the Sheepshead Bay
Race Track in
Brooklyn. Records from that time are sketchy; other sources credit Horton and AAF Col. C.C. Culver that same year and general location.
The first ground-to-air voice communications likely followed
in
1915, when Royal Flying Corps Capt. C.E. Prince reportedly radioed Capt. J.M. Furnival as he circled overhead.
Progress in the other direction was swift. “In June 1915, the world’s first air-to-ground voice transmission took place at Brooklands, England, over about 20 miles,” says the BAA Training website (
www.baatraining. com). The first time airplanes in-flight communicated with each other directly via radio was reportedly on Sept. 2, 1916.
“Hello Furnie. If you can hear me now it will be the first time speech has ever been communicated to an aeroplane in flight,” Capt. Prince said. He then added, “Hello Furnie, if you can hear me dip your wings” – and Capt. Furnival waggled his wings in response.
Practical two-way aerial radios soon followed and were deployed into World War I aircraft as a matter of course. When the revolutionary Sikorsky R-4 helicopter went into service in World War II, a radio was part of its core equipment.
Today, radio remains a vital element of
helicopter communications. But
just as helicopters have advanced from the R-4, so have helicopter communication systems. Here’s a look at what’s cutting edge today, and what’s on the horizon for tomorrow.
rotorpro.com
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