The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-03-28

The airman can no more
follow the shortest distance between two points
through the air with mail and fast express matter
than Il train can run without stations and switches
at each end of the route.
AT these air route stations must be landing
heldS, hangers for the machines, gasoline supplies,
spare parts, charts, maps, weather forecast sig
hals, engine mechanics, receivers for the quick
transfer and delivery OF mail, express matter or
Whatever 1T is. What types of landing fields? And
where shall they be located-Outside city limits or
In city parks cleared Of buildings and trees for the
purpose?
Another point: Special charts will have to be
prepared for the pilot to follow. For instance,
crossing the Atlantic, going east, the airplane
would, / am told by engineers, have to follow east
q little by south. Similar charts would have to be
Drawn TO guide the pilot during prevailing trade
or seasonal winds. The Chinook winds of the
Rockies, for instance, would add from 20 to 90
miles an hour to a pilots speed coming east and
Impede his flight to the same extent going west.
Inc deserts, the Mojave, Arizona, Mexico, Utah.
have their dust storms from March to June. Which
way do they blow? Montague, l think 1t Is, says
the brown fogs of the Atlantic can be surmounted
ut from 10000 to $1,000 feet, but while the airplane
VIII take the flyer above the dust, will it take him
above the hurricane that creates the dust?
The meteorological bureau of Washington and
The chamber Of commerce Of San Diego have done
most up to the present time in charting air cur
rents for aerial flights. 1t is an entirely new
world, and 1t is a puzzling one; for remember, the
airplane may drift from its course, just as ships
drift in ocean currents without the compass giving
an mixing Of it, and here again the army and navy
could, an they would, n tale unfold.
But it Is in the region of the mountains that the
lighthouses with powerful lenses are most needed
for aerial routes. This air region is an entirely
unknown world, and it is dangerous rs reefs off
Labrador for a landing place. Cases are on rec
ord In which fighters i'm the war interlOcked wings
and came down and stuck in a treetop without
so much as q scratch on the skin of either pilot.
But quite az dangerous as treetops and rocks
coming UP to meet you through the floor Of your
car are the custy air pockets above all mountains.
Ii is not Known yet whether the air above noun
tains is as gusty at night when the sun is not
creating upcurrents; but if by day the sun creates
Niagaras Of air, and if by night you may run into
a'blizzard Of snow, say, above Pixies Peak, there
is a lot to do in charting air roads above the Rock
les before we get that section of our transconti-
mental air route as safe as fight above the ocean.
Still, as late as 1880, the fur traders Of the noun
tains secuted the possibility Of even wagons ever
crossing the Great Divide. Today, trains, motors
and wagons cross all sections of the Divide with
less thought and danger than pedestrians cross
Fifth avenue, New York and by 1880, it is a safe
wager with your son that airplanes will do the
same.
But this is not all there is to charting the air,
not by 81 long, long shot. How about direction sig
nails?
Rules of the Road Needed.
Each machine must always be given its own
space, or twice its own space, ITO pass or meet
another machine, but how about direction signals?
Do YOU pass to the right or left? What are the
penalties and who pays them, IL you don't take
the correct side and a collision results? Who has
the right OF way, the coming-in machine or. the
going out? What rate of speed is to be allowed
for certain levels. and who is to police the air and
regulate the traffic?
Did you ever think what Il gorgeous streak of
adventure an air robber, a Captain Kidd Of the sky
route, could have if he made off with a plane good
for eleven tons cargo and 1877 miles speed? You
might catch him on a peak of the Rockies, or he
might nave cached his loot in the moon. You may
smile, but are any Of these possibilities more I'M
likely than were the actual achievements Of the
airplane in the war?
The apprehension Of the airplane in industry be-
ing clancy because its engine may 60 dead or it's
controls go out OF whack does not alarm the air
man. Dual engines, dual controls and two pilots
will minimize that risk but there is a very def
mite apprehension in the airman's mind. He knows
the airplane Is going to leap into industry as spec
us the mOtOrcar, all right.
He wants the air charted and the rules of the
game established before the argosies of countless
winged fleets are in the air. He wants all ele-
ments of danger and confusion and antagonism re-
moved before The ~argosies of mail and express and
dying freight - up Ia the air