Cool video, thanks for sharing. In the end it mentions that it was easy to train pilots to use the system, which got me wondering, when in time did the first Instrument Ratings ever develop and were granted?
A quick search did not reveal any readily available chronology. I guess we could search for ICAO documents but before it was standardise there, there must have been a pilot who was the first ever to get an official Instrument Rating from whatever agency started issuing them?
PS: While searching, found references to this book https://www.daileyint.com/flying/flytoc.htm “The Triumph of Instrument Flight: A Retrospective in the Century of U.S. Aviation” which looks like an interesting read.
Ridiculously they used such a system until ground.
Things like a safe go around will have been invented later after too many bold pilots had perished.
Flying internationally by instruments couldn’t have been that common in 1939/1940 as there are many tales of ferry pilots bringing bombers (especially Hudsons) and other aircraft to the UK from Gander, Canada.
They often flew in IMC with only watch and compass. It is incredible how many actually landed, at least somewhere in the UK or Ireland. IMO blooming good aviators or very lucky or perhaps both.
But the answer is 24th September 1929 was the first experimental flights on instruments.
First instrument rating 1950
Yes, good aviators St Exupéry style. I wonder at which degree non-military pilots avoided IMC in the first half of the 20th century. For sure in war times the emphasis was on operational effectiveness vs risk (since you had a big risk of being shot down during the mission anyway), which would explains why such a system could be used until landing. But for regular / aéropostale operations ?
Old bomber crews had a specialist navigator. But a friend told me of the story of how 6 pilots went to pick up 6 Hudson bombers from Gander. The squadron leader simply said follow me. They all took off an pretty soon entered cloud. And that’s the last they saw of each other until they all rejoined at Prestwick. Some of them having made overnight stopovers in other parts of the UK, under guard and kept in solitary confinement.
RobertL18C wrote:
I can claim that the Canadian IR in the Jurassic period you were still expected to display competence in flying the beam, holds and approaches using LF four course ranges.
I got my PPL in Canada in the late 1980’s. I remember reading about those old LF four course ranges, but I wasn’t aware of any still being used. I wonder how long they lasted in Canada.
The flash from the marker light is very brief and easily missed. Was it really that short, or is it just video editing?
hmng wrote
first ever to get an official Instrument Rating
I read recently that instrument licences were first published by ICAO in 1944 (not the Chicago Convention), and written into French law in 1952. No more information from that book unfortunately.
Dan wrote
MkIV eyeballs
I’m still on MkI 
Surprising both that they set the DI to show 180 outbound and 360 outbound regardless of the actual runway direction. Also surprising that the localiser wasn’t used until passing the inner marker at 200 feet!
Airborne_Again wrote:
Surprising both that they set the DI to show 180 outbound and 360 outbound regardless of the actual runway direction. Also surprising that the localiser wasn’t used until passing the inner marker at 200 feet!
Yes I thought the same. Both has changed since, and the reason will have been several deaths due to confusion and too poor terrain clearance. I mean, to start the localiser at 200 feet AGL means this is basically intended as a zero-vis landing aid. That’s crazy.
Airborne_Again wrote:
360 outbound
INBOUND!
