Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1916-09-01

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defense only, and not to aid inexcnsabe territorial ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
The great value Of aircraft as a life saver o. water, as illustrated by
the aero coast patrol system advocated by our National Aerial Coast Patrol
commission is acknowledged. Let us now consider briefly the coming
activities of the aircraft on land.
One of the great uses for aeropianes in the near future will be as fire
fighters. The time is almost at hand when giant planes, larger than any
we know of now, and with a speed greatly above the average of IS to 100
miles an hour which prevails at the present time, will be equipped essen.
TALLY like land fire apparatus. Rushing without hndrance through the
cir at $50 to 200 miles an hour, carrying ~fre-fghting apparatus and expe-
renced fremen, fully equipped aerial fire departments will dash toward
the buildings on fire, and extngnish the flames with chemicals long before
the fire department of these times could get half way to the blaze. In fact,
it will be done easier for the reason that the modern skyscraper is hard
to save if the fire gets a good start, and great, and sometimes fatal, delay
due to getting up to the fire if it is on the upper stories.
To the aerial fire department this will be no difficulty at all. The
w.,, -... sixteth, SEVENTEEN or eightieth story,
vo"a ~ a. or the fHyseventh floor in the Wool
" y" WI" " worth building in New York, will be
just as easy to fly to as it is for the land fire fighters to get up to the eighth
or ninth floor.
from a triumphal tour of Japan and China, while flying over Mineola,
near New York city, saw that the dwelling of a citizen was on fire before
anybody else even knew about it. Niles flew to the confagraion and
Unanswered around and above the house IN such a way that che alarm Was
communicated to people in the street and the fire was soon put out. If this
can be done merely as an incident to a little air jaunt in the afternoon, it
is not difficult to believe a great deal more can be accomplished by a full
Aeroplanes will also fly at tremendous speed from one city to give aid
to a neighboring city in distress. They will be fire fighters if that is what
has been called for by s. o. S. appeals, or they will be big and fleet trucks
carrying supplies and a little army of helpers.
Suppose, for illustration, that another disastrous conAagration should
spring up in the city of Baltimore when aerial fire departments are a
reality. In half an hour aid would be there from Washington nearly 50
miles away, an hour later the Philadelphia machines would be on the
scene, and after another hour the whirr and the clang Of the New York
contingent would be heard in the air.
Take another illustration. Let us imagine a repetition of the Dayton
food. The loss of life and the bitter distress caused by that disaster would
not be repeated, for powerful fiers
Powerful Machines Would hoornr rfo Iros clotbino he'd COW
uu'cNy ne"eVe O'S"esS ering, frstaid packages, medicines
and everything else needed would be on hand in a very short time from hr
n~eighboring cities in Ohio, and from a resourceful metropolis like Chlcago
or indianapolis.
These instances might be multiplied at great length, and to a point
tiresome in detail. Indeed, there is hardly a life saving function exercised
on land that cannot, and will not, be done much better and much faster
by all.
Everything will not come at once, to be sure, but aeronautcs Is oe
veloping with such remarkable celebrity in this and most all other countries
that the germ Of the foregoing suggestions has already passed the neoulal
stage, and before the present generation has gone to its reward many D