What is this building I passed marked "Critical Area?"

I drove by it yesterday and wondered about the weird bowling pin shape.

93 points · 18 comments · view on lemmy.world

18 Comments

667@lemmy.radio · 110 pts · 93d (6 replies)

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHF_omnidirectional_range

ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 93d (3 replies)

So cool, thank you!

667@lemmy.radio · 23 pts · 93d (2 replies)
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 93d (1 reply)

Witchcraft, but really neat.

darkdemize@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 93d

As someone who used to work on VORs, witchcraft is a really good way to describe them.

Pistcow@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 93d

Soooo the Astronomicon?

glups@piefed.social · 7 pts · 93d

And also a nested acronym

Prezhotnuts@lemmy.ca · 26 pts · 93d (1 reply)

It's a VOR used in aviation for navigation.

ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 93d

Awesome, not what I expected, thanks!

ramble81@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 93d (3 replies)

Where in the screenshot does it say “Critical Area”, I can’t find it.

AWTM_James@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 93d

It's on that little red sign, the image is just so compressed it's impossible to read

aramis87@fedia.io · 6 pts · 93d

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".

ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 93d

On the blurry little sign in front of it. I didn't take a photo, just noted the address and looked it up on Google Maps, so it's illegible here, but you can read it if you pull up the address and zoom.

homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 93d

“Probably used for ritual purposes.”

vatlark@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 93d (3 replies)

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.

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler \s :::

ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 93d

I was thinking a giant laser on a swivel to shoot at the sky. But realistically, I figured it just housed power equipment or something.

Morphit@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 92d (1 reply)

50ft seems a pretty pathetic increase in range. They should have made the effort to make it pointy instead.

667@lemmy.radio · 2 pts · 92d

Aladeen, I assure you the current design has absolutely no effect on the aerodynamics of the system