The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-11-26
PLAN 50 NEW LINES FOR AIR
 MAIL SERVICE
Post Office Department Seeks
 Surplus Men and
 Planes.

new air mail lines is contemplated by the Post Office Department and will be effected almost at once through the use of army airplanes, equipment and trained personnel if the War De- pertinent can be induced to turn over its surplus planes and fiiers. Neces- isity for rapid action has arisen, ac- 1 cording to the Aero Club of America, l through the fact that hundreds of army aviators have been notified that they must resign in a few days or identify themselves witT the regular army. According to Captain B. B. Lipsner, superintendent of the Aerial Mail Ser vice, who came to New York yester- 1 day to consult with aircraft men whose aid in extending the service he desires 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 ser i vice. He declared the last general army appropriation bill provided that such disposition should be made by the army of all superhuous material
 
 combat and training purposes. Cap tain Lipsner said that Secretary Ba- ker is in cordial sympathy with the expansive program of the air service. l Development of all mail service to a point where rapid transmission of millions of letters from New England to the far South and from coast to coast will be but a matter of weeks ! ny- I1o verge of accomplishment, according to Henry Wocdhouse and other leaders Ihere, as they said last night it was possible favorable action already had been taken by the War Department on the request of the Aerial Mail Ser vice for its flyers, planes, and general equipment. They pointed out that the recent resignation Of John D. Ryan, Assistant Secretary of War and Di- rector of Aircraft Production, and with him number of minor chiefs of the army air service, had possibly ob- scured for the moment favorable ac- ton already taken by the War De- lpartment. If this is not so, MT.
 Wc'odhouse added their going would delay such action only momentarily, for the army could not use a fraction of it's men and planes. Alan R. flaw ley of the Aero Club of America last night sent this telegram to Secretary Baker:
 Hundreds of army aviators who have been notified that they must de- eide in a 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 join the Aerial Mail service, therefore, we urge that the time in which they must place their resignations with the army be delayed long enough to permit them to connect themselves with the Post Office for aerial mail service.
 Second Assistant Postmaster Gen eral Praeger and Captain B. B. Lips ner, the superintendent of the Aerial
 Mail Service, have been preparing for
 exactly such an emergency, and they
 are ready to establish 50 aerial mail lines throughout the United States
 and employ 1000 military aviatDrs tc
 carry mail. You can hasten the es>
 ta'blishing of these aerial mail lines
 and employing of these aviators by
 turning over to the postal authorities 800 of the airplane9 which the army  deteriorate and be wasted unless they
 are turned over to the Post Office
 We know from the hundreds of re- quests received from the Chambers of , Commerce throughout the United ! States that the country as a whole wants the extension of tho aerial mail { service, because it has been run at 100 ! per cent. efficiency for six months and n N4 difficult problems of mail transporta-
 tion and distribution
 Captain Lipsner said last night that
 the 100 per cent. success already scored
 by the air mail service, without tha Il loss of @ man or a machine, amply :, justified it's ambitious program, and .l that the millions of letters already
 transported afforded indisputabIe evi, = dence that the business public is eager | | for extension of the service. He sai. VI that already highly trained f1iers and = mechanics are returning from the U battlefields of Europe and are eager to turn their training to good ac- Icount.
 In defining the army equipment
 which would be most valuable to the postal men, Captain LiPsner men, D. toned the vast accumulation of in- struments of all sorts, as well as hun
 dreds of Handley Paige planes which
 can carry one and one-haf tons of B. mail at the rate of 100 miles an hour
 more hundreds of De Eavilands. each of which can transport 1000 pounds ot
 mail at the rate of 14O miles an hour g. and numerous other twin motor types
 of airplanes readily adaptable to inc
 mail service.
 '- The first of the new routes, said Mir
 Woodhouse, who Is in close toucF K with the departments plans, will be 'e along the Woodrow Wilson Airway,' 'e mapped and named after the Presi. y dent in 1917 by the Aero Club. Thi. al represents a zone 80 miles in widtf
 extending from New York to sar , Francisco, and a line through i t touches the most important cities il III the States of New York New Jersey re Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, In Ut Uu diana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wy Ut oming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, anC os California. The airway zone extend oI 10 miles on each side of the line so tn
 air traveller can get to the extrem es edge at either side of the zone in les Ie than haf-hour's flying.
 Il Within this zone the new routes ar ", to be that from New York to Chtca gc L which already Is being established 1e another from New York to Boston,
 third from Chicago to Omaha an
 Denver, and, later, to San Francisco
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