The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-18
A NAVY FOR The AIR
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY Frederic J. Haskin. Director,
Washington, ID. G.
V.-After the War.

aviation, Brigadier General Squier
rightly remarked that considered in
terms of winning the war, it is posi-
tive bargain" Considered in terms of
what it will mean after the war, IL
appears more of a bargain than ever.
1t may seem a little early to talk
about after the war" when the air
fleet is not built yet, and there is no
sign of the wars ending. But to the
nation as to the individual who can
look ahead are power and prosperity
granted; and no less than four Euro
pean nations are already planning
seriously and in detail how their great
aerial navies can be of use to them
after the war. The United States
itself has just taken the first step in
that direction.
This was the introduction of a joint
resolution in congress providing for
the appointment of a commission on
aerial navigation whose principal
function will be to investigate the
commercial possibilities of aerial
transport. The proposed commission
will consist of three senators, three
representatives, a general, an admiral,
and a civilian engineer. Their report
is to be presented before December
of this year.
There is no doubt in the minds of
those who have studied the situation
that the aeroplane as means OF trans
portation,s carrying mail, passengers
come to stay. The war has immense
ly FASTENED its development. The ma
tons that are sufficiently progressive
and farsighted to take up commercial
aerial transport quickly and on a large
scale will gain a considerable ad-
vantage in domestic development and
commerce after the war.
England has already appointed an
Investigating committee similar to the
- T-,S% $afo
is known as the Commercial Aerial
Transport Commission and has Lord
Northcliffe for its chairman. England
has been considering the commercial
possibilities of the aeroplane seriously
for some time. and so have France,
Italy, and probably Germany. Each
of these nations sees itself with con-
stantly increasing supply of aero
planes and trained pilots 81 its hands.
The excellence of machines and me-
chanics is continually growing more
marked. What were once notable
feats of daring in the air have become
the merest commonplace, unworthy
even of a line in the newspapers
These nations regard it as inconceiv-
able that their highly developed ma
chimes shall be scrapped and their
trained men put back into other pur-
suits after the war. 1t is the hope of
all concerned that the immense mill
tary and naval aviation services Will
not have to be maintained as a part
of national armament in expectation
of another war. The flying fleets will
be available for purposes f commerce
after the conclusion of any satfsfac-
tory peace.
England has taken up the problem
more enthusiastically than any other
nation partly on account of her i'm
periaI question. The maintenance of
a huge empire is dependent entirely
on means of communication. Had it
not been for the Improvements in
transportation made in the nineteenth
century, the British Empire of today
would not exist. If the aeroplane can
be used further to perfect transporta-
ton methods, England sees in it a
means of linking the units of the En-
pire still more closely into whole.
All the British colonies are represent
ed on the Aerial Transport, commits
sion.
The problem is being soberly con-
sidered all over the world by prac-
teal men. There Is no talk of the
aeroplane superseding the railroad
the steamship or the automobile. 1t
promises to supplement them all, and
to take away their business in GER
tain lines for which 1t is particularly
fitted.
An analogy can be drawn from the
development of the railroad. River
navigation was the accepted means of
inland travel before the railroad came.
The course of the rivers determined
the course of history. It has been
said that had the great American riv-
ers drained into the Atlantic there
would have been no Civil war. The
river furnished a means of transpor-
! tation. but it limited progress to it's
own tortuous channel.
Then came the railroad, striking
directly across the plain, scaling
/ nd ING racf
! territory that the navigable rivers
never tapped. Yet the railroad did
not supplant the river as a means of
| transport. For certain classes of
heavy freight moving the river is still
! supreme.
Now comes the aeroplane, bearing
| the same relation to the railroad that
| the railroad bore to the river. The
rail line is less hampered by topog-
raphy than the river, but it is still
| confined to certain practicable grades
and routes. The road for the aero
plane lies equally open in all direc-
tons. 1t can tap territory barred to
| the railroad. 1t will not supplant the
railroad, but it will supplement it.
In the matter of weight-carrying
the aeroplane is still sharply limited.
| There is no present indication that it
will ever be able to compete with the
railroad on this score. But already
today, it can do certain things better
| than any railroad can do them. 1t
can carry a limited weight at a great
er speed than any other form of
/ transport. 1t is absolutely free as to
route and direction. 1t needs no road
| bed, no expensive track. Its route
can be changed without any of the
! expense attendant on pulling up
| tracks or building new roadways.
The factor Of speed gives the aero
plane at once the assurance of a mo-
nopoly of a certain class of business
where expense is a secondary consid-
| Grafton. The class of travel which
| causes the railroad to put an 18-hour
| extra-fare train on the New York
Chicago run, that makes it profitable
far the transatlantic companies to
maintain six-day boats in peace time,
VIII individually turn to the aeroplane
| as a means of travel as soon as a