Arizona republican., 1918-12-06


 to San Diego from Fl Paso.
 Mapping the Country
 Charts of the country are being made by Major Smith as the flight progresses. and navigation courses mapped out, Photographs are being made by Lieutenant Evans by means of a camera pointed downward in the bottom of the majors machine. After being welcomed by the cham Der of commerce committee, headed by A. c. Dulmake and Harry Welch, sec retary of the chamber, the fliers filled ! their tanks with the supplies awaiting them and got their planes in shape for a start this afternoon. All four of the machines which arrived yesterday are of the Curtfss training model, two l seated. with Hispaso Suiza motors de- veloping 150 horsepower. They are l capable of a. speed of 95 miles an hour and are fully equipped with spare parts in case of an accident. They do 1 not carry wireless. The pilots are all graduate fliers; Lieutenant Worth ingham being, under Major Smith, commandant of the. aviation gunnery school at Ream Field, San Diego. Depart at One This Afternoon l After. making preparations for a start this afternoon. the personnel of II late yesterday afternoon in motor cars furnished by the motor transport corps, and taken to the Arizona club. where the birdmen were entertained last night. This morning they will be shown over the city. Although it was first intended to leave for Tucson at ! 10 o'clock this morning, Major Smith announced last night the squadron would not leave Phoenix until l o'clock this afternoon. It will spend tonight in Tucson, leaving there early tomor- row morning. Fl Paso will be reached at l o'clock Saturday afternoon. | After taking to the air this morning, the planes vii circle the city in flight l formation and give short exhibition for the benefit of the people of Phoe- | nix.
 Crowd Waited Long | Although rousing crowd was out to welcome the fliers yesterday afternoon when they finally arrived, it did not ] exceed in size the crowd that waited at the fair grounds yesterday morn 1 ing, in expectation of the squadRoN' S | arriving at 10 o'clock, as had been an | nounced after it's first failure to come | Wednesday afternoon. The crowd 1 waited almost two hours before it was | finally learned the planes could not ! possibly arrive before afternoon. About 11:15 o'clock the chamber of i commerce ascertained the squadron | had not passed Yuma A telegram for l information was sent to Calexico, while the people at the fair grounds | for the most part returned home for l lunch. Shortly afternoon it was learned i from CaleXico the planes had been de- | tained there until noon. The hour of 1 9 o'clock
 Throughout the afternoon necks
 were craned all over the city while
 their owners took no chances on miss
 ing the planes on account of a prema-
 ture arrival. Many persons remained | at their posts at the fair grounds, | while others returned. Even then the
 squadron was late, arriving an hour
 and a half after schedule
 But so long as it came at all the peo-
 pie did not mind the wait
 Before leaving the field last night
 Major Smith, who has had wide ex-
 perience in training aviators both on
 the coast and in the east, sketched
 over for a reporter the following high
 points in Americas war airplane ac-
 complishments:
 For every pilot killed in accident in T
 109 hours of flying in the air.
 For every pilot killed in accident 231,520 miles have been flown by army ayiators.
 Eight thousand five hundred anG
 thirty eight reserve air pilots have
 been trained since war began, and S.
 PAP pilots graduated from advanced
 flying schools. The number of officer
 fliers instructed at training camps
 totals 22,542, while 1,S00 fliers have been sent overseas.
 The strength of the army aviation
 service is 15S,425 men and officers
 nearly twice the size of our regular
 army two years ago. This does not in.
 clude the marine and navy air services
 Since war began the government ha.
 established and is operating five tech.
 nical schools for aviators; eight baIlor schools, three radio schools, thre,
 schools for aerial photography, 1. aerial depots, and 40 primary and ad. vanced flying schools. The govern. ment controls all airplane construction in the United States, and supervises
 all aviation activities.
 Since we entered the war we have built up the following air strength, 3,22S combat planes of the latest type
 5,119 traiping planes. 512 planes hay,
 been received from Europe, and 1,72I combat planes have been shipped over.
 seas.
 As Major Smith aptly put it, .sw, were just getting started when the Germans got cold feet and quit. ant our aviation achievements so far in tn, , war are nothing to what we would have shown the Huns six months iron
 now
 Having trained all these fliers ani built all these planes. the government is already planning to get them bacl into civil use by means of the air mai service which is already operating ir
 some parts of the east, and which vii be extended throughout the country To quote the major further: We want to keep up the start we'v, got in aviation now. This country i. } the dady of the airplane, and there. , no use in not using it.
 LABOR FILES SIX CASES