Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-06
AIR MAIL SERVICE
i PLANS so LINES
Post Office Department Seeks
Surplus Men and Equip
=. ment From Army

use of army airplanes, equipment
> and trained personnel if the War
Department can be induced to turn
over its surplus planes and fliers.
Necessity for rapid action has arisen,
according to the Aero Club of
America, through the fact that hun
dreds of army aviators have been
notified that they must resign with
in few days or identify themselves
with the regular army.
According to Captain b. B. Lips
ner, superintendent of the aerial
mail service, who came to New York
to consult with aircraft men whose
aid in extending the service he de-
sires to enlist, ample authority al
ready exists for the army to turn
over to the Post Office Department
all the essentials of a nationwide
air service. He declared the last gen.
eral army appropriation bill pro-
vided that such disposition should
be made by the army of all super
fluous material which it did not re-
quire for actual combat and train
Ing purposes. Captain Lipsner said
that Secretary Baker is in cordial
sympathy with the expansive pro-
gram of the air service.
Development of air mail service
to a point where rapid transmits
sion of millions of letters from New
England to the far South and from
coast to coast will be but n matter
OF weeks or months may already be
oh tne verge or accomplishment.
according to Henry Woodhouse and
other leaders here, as they said last
night 1t was possible favorable actIbn
already had been taken bv the WpS
Department on the request OF tho
Aerial Mail Service for its flyers,
planes, and general equipment. They
pointed out that the recent resigna-
tlon OF John D. Ryan. Assistant Sec
retary OF War and Director of Air
cratt production, and with him Of
NUMBER or minor chiefs OF the
army air service, had possibly OBJ
scured Tor the moment favorable
action already taken by the War De-
partment. II this is not SO, Mr..
Woodhouse added, their going
would delay such action only mo-
mentarily, for tho army could NOT
Use a fraction of its men and planes,
Alan r. Hawley Of the Aero Club
OF America last night sent this tele-
gram to Secretary Baker:
Hundreds OF army nvIntors who
have been notified that they must
decide in q few DAYS whether TO
resign their commissions or Join the
regular army have applied to the
Aero Club of America for positions.
MOST OF them are anxious to 1oin the
Aerial Mail Service therefore, we
urge that the time in which they
must place their designations with
the army be delayed long enough to
permit them to connect themselves
with the Post Office for aerial mail
service.
Second Assistant Postmaster
General Praeger md Captain b. B,
Lipsher the superintendent of the
aerial mail service, have been pre-
pairing for exactly such an emer-
Eehcy, and they are ready TO estab-
llsh fifty aerial mail lines through
out the United States and employ
lOO0 military aviators to carry mail
You can hasten the establishing of
these aerial mail lines and employ
ing of those aviators by turning
over to the postal authorities 500
or the Rirplanes which the army
cannot use at present, and which
Will deteriorate and be wasted un-
less they are turned over to the
Post Office.
1--WE know from the hundreds of
requests received from the Cham
bers of Commerce throughout the
United States that the country as q
whole wants the extension of the
aerial mail service, because 1t has
been run at 100 per cent. efficiency
for six months and promises to solve
some OF <he most difficult problems
OF mail transportation and distri-
button.
Captain Lipsner said last night
that the 100-per-cent. success al
ready scored by the air mail service,
without the loss of a man or a ma
chine, amply justified it's ambitious
program, and that the millions of
letters already transported afforded
indisputable evidence th-t the busi-
ness public is eager for extension
OF the service. He said that already
highly trained fliers and mechanics
are returning from the battlefelds
OF Europe and are eager to turG
their training to good account.
In defining the army equipment
which would be most valuable to
the postal men, Captain Lipsner
mentioned the vast accumulation of
Instruments of all sorts, as we'll as
hundreds of Handley Paige planes
which can carry one and one-half
tons of mail at the rate of 100 miles
AN hour, more hundreds of De Havi-
lands, each of which can TRANSPORT
1000 pounds of mail at the rate of
N40 miles an hour, and numerous
other twin-motor types of airplanes
readily adaptable to the mail serv-
ice.
The first of the new routes, said
Mr.. Woodhouse, who is in close
touch with the departments plans,
will be along the Woodrow Will
Son Airway," mapped and named
after the President in 1917 by the
Aero Club. This represents a zone
Aighty miles in width extending
Sfom New York to San Francisco,
And a line through it touches the
most important cities in the States
Of New York. New Jersey Pennsyl-
vania, Ohio. Michigan. indiana, Iln-
hois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming.
Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Cali
kornia. The nirway zone extends
forty miles on each side of the line
20 the air traveller can get to the
Hxtreme edge at either side of the
cone In less than a half-hour's fly
ang,