May 05, 1953 - LIFESAVER SARAH... SARAH - short for Search and Rescue and Homing...

May 05, 1953 - LIFESAVER SARAH... SARAH - short for Search and Rescue and Homing - is a new radio device for saving air-crash survivors, shipwrecked seamen and stranded personnel in mountains, jungle and in desert. A radio beacon weighing only 20 ounces with a 32-ounce battery fitted to the survivor's life-jacket, transmits a signal to guide searching aircraft. The stranded man pulls a ring which releases a 31-inch flexible aerial and starts the transmitter. Transmission can be maintained for 20 hours with a maximum range of 66 miles to an aircraft at 10,000 feet. A distress signal at see can thus be picked up by an aircraft within an area of 10,000 square miles. The signals are displayed on a cathode ray tube in the rescuing aircraft. The rescuing craft then” homes” on to the signal which suddenly vanishes when the aircraft is above the stranded man. A two-way speech unit provides means of verbal communication in between rescuer and survivor at close range. Keystone Photo Shows: - On left - SARAH, the new radio life - saving device, is seen before a water test, showing the oscillator and aerial containers. On right - SARAH is seen being demonstrated in water, with the” survivor” using his hand microphone, with erected aerial.