I drove by it yesterday and wondered about the weird bowling pin shape.
This is an aviation navigation beacon called a VOR, VHF Omnidirectional Radio beacon. The successor to NDB (Non-directional Radio Beacon), and the predecessor to GPS.
And also a nested acronym
Soooo the Astronomicon?
So cool, thank you!
Certainly! Here you can see it in a navigational context: https://skyvector.com/?ll=35.00132396086607%2C-81.93470676527723&chart=425&zoom=1&fpl=SPA
Where in the screenshot does it say “Critical Area”, I can’t find it.
It’s on that little red sign, the image is just so compressed it’s impossible to read
The little red sign on the fence says “Critical Area - Keep Out”. It’s not very clear in the screenshot, but you can see it on streetview; the coordinates are 35.033706, -81.925449 ; it’s labelled “US Government - FAA building”.
That cone is the tip of a missile. After they built the silo they extended the range of the ballistic missile so its about 50 ft taller than the original design.
Tap for spoiler
\s
50ft seems a pretty pathetic increase in range. They should have made the effort to make it pointy instead.
Aladeen, I assure you the current design has absolutely no effect on the aerodynamics of the system
