The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1918-12-06
MAIL PLANE SERVICE
POSTAL AIR ROUTES
Flying Squadron Here Last Week
Surveying Field.

the system of transportation in the
United States and probably of the
European countries and Canada will
be the utilization of the air craft
motor trucks and other war equip
ment.
Men in the air service have al
ready been commissioned to survey,
complete with routes and data, the
probable routes for mail planes, the
United States Post Office Department
having decided upon aerial mail
service with war planes now in the
different air plane cantonments.
Lieuts. Crafts, Bartlett and Har-
wood, of Park Field, near Memphis,
were in the city last Friday for the
purpose above set forth. Union City
is being considered among the points
to be used as relay stations, and the
three men arrived in their planes
from Park Field to make the neces-
sary preliminaries for exhibits of the
different points. These gentlemen
were on the way from Park Field to
Scott Field, ILL.,, surveying the route
from Memphis to st. Louis. They
left Park Field at 10 a. m. Nov. 20
and made the trip of 325 miles, land
ing in Columbus, KY, Sparta, ILL.,,
and arrived at Scott Field during the
off Of
A number of the fields are to be
closed; in fact there will be COM
paratively few left open permanent
ly, but these are to be used for Op-
Grating mail routes and other pur
poses. Among the number to be
made permanent it is thought Park
Field will be one, and it will be a
base for mail routes.
Among the highways mapped out
by the War Department will be
transcontinental and State routes.
There will be at least one flying field
for every ship landing and there will
be aerial transportation to every i'm
portant city in the United States.
Maj Gen. Henley has been named
to direct military aeronautics, visit
ing Park Field Nov. "a. He was taxi
en- to Ebbets Field, Loanoke, Ark,
by pilots from Scott Field, also to
Payne Field, West Point, Miss. Gen
eral Henley inspected three fields
and will probably issue orders di
recting that Park Field be kept as a
permanent field after the war.
PARK FIELD.
Here a little bit of information
concerning Park Field is in order.
The commanding officer in charge is
Major Simmons; in charge of flying,
Captain Hoyt. There arc 800 cadets
under instruction for pilots. The
field will be kept open thru the win
ter, in full swing all the time.
UNION CITY.
The committee landed in Union
City and proceeded at once to get
the necessary data and survey of
facilities as a landing station on one
of the State and transcontinental
routes.
WAR STATISTICS.
For every aviator killed during
the war it has been computed that
235, 900 miles have been travelled and
1000 hours consumed in the proper
tion as one aviator is to the whole
number in the service.
There are in the United States
8,538 military reserve aviators al
ready trained. There are 5000 men
now under instruction. There are
$500 graduates of schools ranking
above military aviators. There are
$500 graduate instructors and 1000
pilots and observers trained abroad.
There are 14,500 mechanics in Amer
ican schools. The total strength of
the air service Nov. 8, 1918, was
158,500 men. This is more than the
of men in the standing army
before the war.
approximately the number Of fly
ing schools in the United States, 40;
schools of military aeronautics, 5;
balloon schools, 8: radio schools, 8;
photo schools, 3; air dcpots, IA.
The Government now has complete
control of building air planes and
training aviators. Under its juris-
diction are all flying fields, aero
nautical fields, end plants of airplane
in the United States.
of planes owned by the
United States Nov. 8, 1918, service
or combat planes, 1928; training
planes in the U. s., 5,779; training
planes from Europe for the U. s.,
512; combat planes from Europe for
the U. s., 1873.