The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-05-16
PERSONALLY | shall
deVoteaQ myStrength
10 development of
the winged giant"
BY LLOYD ALLEN,
Special Staff Correspondent.

Special Staff Correspondent.
Copyright. 1919. by Western Newspaper Unionl
E%2z4EtA URIN, Italy.-Her in Turin, which
NM was headquarters for the American
@ 10 air service in Italy during the war,
fH.EsmfM3R there are many American aviation
lO officers who believe the Caproni air
"a plane is the highest type of giant
lM-DNY aircraft developed during the great
f Gianni Caproni, the italian engin-
- Ger VINO is the genius responsible
for the Caproni plane, has no heSitancy in giving
the Wright brothers and Doctor Langley Of Amer
lea the fullest credit for making and developing
the first practical %airplanes and states frankly that
he was a kind Of pupil of the great Americans.
Here is what Caproni has developed from the
American planes invented by Langley and the
Wrights, according to American officers in Turin
who are working with Caproni planes: Caproni
has perfected a machine that will carry something
like 5000 pounds Of weight, five hours fuel supply,
and with Liberty motors, American made, climb
5000 feet in six minutes. With q giant machine
like this Italian aviators are making plans to fly
across the Atlantic during the present year.
They may cross from Africa to Brazil or may
attempt the North Atlantic flight. They realize in
Italy, as well as in France and England and Amer
lea, that the first machine to accomplish the At
lantic flight will win laurels eternal, and you can
take 1t for granted that the Italians fully appreci-
ate the value of the advertising they will get if
they cross the Atlantic first. And they have also
a very high appreciation of the glory they will
achieve, because, like Americans, they are a people
that love to accomplish the seemingly impossible
for the sheer JOY of doing it.
While big Caproni planes are being tested out
in the north of Italy in the attempt to find q ma
chine sound and perfect for the gruelling test it
will get flying overseas, the Caproni plant at Milan,
an immense institution, is finishing it's first com.
mercial airplanes, which have comfortable cabins
Cor the passengers. The interior of an air cabin,
as completed in the Caproni works, looks very
much like the inside of q finely finished street car,
except that it is somewhat more crowded together.
IF you had visited Milan during the winter you
probably would have seen the first Caproni pas
senger plane, a 6OOhorsepower affair capable of
carrying II persons, making it's trial flights over
town, The Caproni works are in the outskirts of
Milan-and the Milanese are justly proud of the
accomplishment of Gianni Caproni.
| talked with Americans who have been taken
up in the Caproni planes. They declared the big
machines start off slowly without nerve-racking
lars and after running 4 few score yards take the
air in a stable. fashion that goes a long way toward
rcassIring the amateur making his first flight.
Worldwide Traffic Predicted.
Passenger and freight-carrying Capronis are be-
ing built in three sizes. The first type, which Is
the one that has been flown repeatedly over Milan,
is the smallest of the three. In the shops the fin
fishing touches are being put on a machine that
will carry % passengers. This is the middle-sized
plane. The large machine-the type that Will at
tempt the Atlantic flights n monster. 1t is capa-
bic of carrying 100 persons and It's passenger cabin
is beinc made as comfortable as a Pullman car,
with padded chairs and handsome veneer ~fnishings
for the walls.
The largest planes are fast. They can make 100
miles an hour when going at top speed. And 1t is
expected that on long-distaIce flights they will
make the fastest railroad trains seem a slow means
of travel.
Oaproni believes that within a very few years
the world will be covered with air lines through
which passenger planes will fly and over which
souadrons of high-class freight-carrying machines
will transport mail and certain kinds of freight, at
rates that compare favOrably with the charges
made by the railroad companies Tor performing the
same service.
Islands. now isolated from the mainlands Of the
world. will be easily and regularly reached when
the regime Of air traffic gets under way, CaprOnl
declares.
While the peace conference in Paris creates a
league Of nations to handle matters Of information.
al interest such as freedom OF the seas and free
dom of the air, the manufacturers of airplanes will
have the chance to get ready for International fly.
ing.
Caproni, like Handley-Page in London and like
the French and American leaders in the aircraft
business, feels that most predictions about the fu-
ture of aviation are more or less modest, when you
ston 70 compare the promises Of the aircraft manu-
facturers with their actual accomplishments during
the war.
When the war started, long-distance flights were
virtually unknown. Just as soon as the value of
aircraft. was realized, every warning nation got
busy building machines and previous records were
smashed almost daily. During the war aircraft &C
cnynr,iSbed time after time what had previously
boen considered impossible. When the war ended
the allied nations, including America were com
Netting an aircraft building program that would
have nut such a fleet of bomb carriers In the all
,hat Be Tin. like Mannheim, Coblenz and the Rhine