Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-10-14

OF 200 per week Several thousand men
should be flying by the time this letter is
published. The age limit for pilots is from
tWenty-one to twenty-seven. and the head of
the training school here tells me the best
men are to be found between the ages of
eighteen and twenty-three
The government IS pushing the manu-
.facture OF aeroplanes for the war They are
the eyes OF the Army, and with enough OF
them we can blind the eyes of the Germans
About S7OOO0O,0O0 has already been appro
prlated for aviation, and the program calls
Tor the immediate construction of $4,000
aeroplanes, school machines and battle
planes, and $4,000 aeroplane motors. At
this writing there are about ten aeroplane
manufacturing companies at work. They
are scattered all over the United States from
Nutley, n. , to Los Angeles, Cal, and. in
addition, the automobile factories have been
moblllzed Tor the making of engines and mo-
tors, and the furniture companies are turn
ing out propellers and the other parts made
OF wood which will be put into the standard
machines More than 100000 feet of ma
hoSany and black walnut will be needed for
the propeIlers alone. Seventy-five million
feet OF spruce has to be cut and dried for the
aeroplane bodies, and thousand feet will
De used tor every machine. If the plans now
LAID work out, within year from now we
shall be turning out 5000 aeroplanes per
month, and shall have 10000 in the war
zone within one year after next
Inc work going on in the plant of the
Curtlss Aeroplane Company at Buffalo is an
indication OF what the United States NAV ex
pect from all the aeroplane companies in
very short time. Much Of the Buffalo plant
mas grown up in the last few months. al
though 1t was in operation before we en-
tered the war and had been making many
machines tor the French and the British.
More than one hundred of its aeroplanes are
now IN active service on the battlefields of
france, and these include flying machines
Tor different purposes. The Curtiss Com
pany has built, altogether, 300 different
types OF flying machines, and the factory
mere is engaged upon several standard types
for the Army and Navy.
Owing to restrictions of the government
~ 'iiN N"iSS' VI giving points TO our enc
mics, | can describe the machines onlv in
general terms. l can say, however. that
they embody the latest and best genius and
invention OF the aviation of today, and that
they are being made under the most rigid
OF government inspection Even the small
est machine has some thousands of parts
1t IS composed of metals of MANY kinds
woods OF special varieties and of textiles and
other materials each OF which. bv careful
investigation and physical and chemical ana
lys1s. has been shown to be fitted for its own
special place IN the machine In making the
aeroplane each and every one Of these parts
Is passed upon again and again both in tho
raw material and the finished product. and
the machine is not accepted without every
part has the government stamp on it. This
Is so OF all kinds OF machines from the small
observation planes. such as the one I rode
H. to the great flying whales, all of which
IN their delicate mechanism are built like
a watch.
Som cot the most interesting of all the
machines are those intended for naval u,ort