The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-15
Transporting Gold by Aeroplane

Orville Wright in Harper's Magazine Perhaps the greatest service of the pas senger aeroplane Is that it will make &C.,
 cessible parts of the world that are now little used. There are plenty of places
 where railroads cannot be built because of the great cost, because of engineering
 obstacles, and because there is not enough traffic to justify them.
 This brings me to the use of the aero-
 plane for transporting freight. The pres- ent type of machine Will never supplant the freight-car; and cannot foresee that 1t will ever be used for carrying coal or wheat. But in transporting special small packages, precious freight, 1t will
 be extremely useful. Here again we shall penetrate sections where the railroad can- not carry us. There are thousands of such places in the west, in South Amer ica, in Africa. The aeroplane will prob ably be one of the most potent agencies in the development of Alaska for here We have an extremely rich country where railroads are difficult and extremely ex- pensive to build. l can best illustrate this by a special instance. There is certain port in Alaska back of which, about IS miles away, lie rich gold fields. The problem of the company which works these mines is to get supplies to it's men and to get the concentrate back | to tidewater The mines are shut off l from the port by two ranges of moun- | tains 4000 feet high, and it is inconceiv- able that railroad should ever be built across these Instructions. Supplies are now sent by a circuitous route which takes three days to make in the summer | time; in winter it cannot be made at all. The company is now completing plans l to install an aeroplane service. In this way the workmen can easily sail over the mountainous barriers and reach the miners in an hour. They can thus carry supplies to the workmen and bring back I the concentrate. The money saved will be an important item: the great point, however. is that the mines with all their precious output, can be successfully worked for the first time. There are thousands of places. in Alaska and else- where, where precisely the same situation exists. Tn such places the flying ma chlne will perform much work now done by packhorse and mule, and open up sections where even the mule IS useless for transit purposes. One of the greatest obsta cles to transportation in Alaska are certain large areas of "nigger- heads flat stretches resembling swamps, With a growth similar to cabbage-heads, which neither man nor beast can negotiate, and across which neither railroads nor high ways can be built. These Instructions, of course, will present no difficulty to the aeroplane.
 I do not think it will supplant the steamship and the railroad as mail | carrier because 1t will be too expensive. It would take a very large number of 1 flying machines, perhaps a hundred, to carry as much mail as we now get into mail car. You can easily figure how
 this would increase the expense It will
 have the same advantage in carrying
 mails as in carrying passengers, and that is speed. This statement also needs some qualification, for, when it comes to quick communication, the aeroplane can never
 supplant the telegraph and the telephone.
 But we shall probably have special
 rapid mail service by aeroplane, for which
 we shall pay a higher price and buy special stamp. The flying machine will
 give 10-hour service between New York
 and Chicago and two-day service from the Atlantic to the Pacific.