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You are here: Home / Language / Where did the Phrase “On the Beam” Come From and What does it Mean in Aviation?

Where did the Phrase “On the Beam” Come From and What does it Mean in Aviation?

July 19, 2020 by Karen Hill

Early aviators had a system of radio signals to guide pilots through fog and bad weather.

Dots and dashes were beamed out from a landing field and picked up in the pilot’s earphones.

If he heard dot-dashes, he was too far left, and dash-dots meant he was too far right.

But when the signals converged into a continuous buzzing sound, the pilot was “on the beam,” or safely on course.

An instrument landing system, or ILS, is a ground-based instrument system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft landing on a runway, and uses a combination of radio signals and lighting in low visibility.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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