The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1919-05-02

URN, Italy-Here In Turin, which
! !:
~ was headquarters for the American
- - air service in Italy during the war,
49, n there many American aviation
officers who believe the Caproni mir
II plane is the highest type of giant
IN III aircraft developed during the great
war
%1 Ganni Caproni, the italian engin-
who 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 arplanes and states frankly that
he was kind Of pupil of the great Americans.
Here is what Capron has developed from the
American planes invented by Langley and the
Wrights, according to American officers in Turin
who working with Caproni planes Capron
has perfected machine that will carry something
like 5000 pounds of weight five hours fuel supply,
and with Liberty motors. American made, climb
1900 feet in six minutes. With a giant machine
like this Italian aviators making plans to fly
across the Atlantic during the present year.
They may cross from Africa to Brazil may
attempt the North Atlantic flight They realize In
Italy, as well ms in France and England and Amer
lea, that the first machine accomplish the At
lantlc 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 II
they cross the Atlantic first. And they have also
very high appreciation of the glory they Will
achieve, because. like Americans. they people
that love to accomplish the seemingly impossible
for the sheer JOY of doing 1t.
While big CapronI planes being tested out
in the north of Italy in the attempt to find ma
chine sound and perfect for the grueing test 1t
will get flying overseas, the Caproni plant at Milan
an immense institution, is finishing its first com.
mercial airplanes. which have comfortable cabins
for the passengers. The interior of an ar-cabin
as completed In the Caproni works, looks very
much like the inside of finely finished street car
except that 1t Is somewhat more crowded together
If you had visited Milan during the winter YOU
probably would have seen the first Caproni pas
senger plane, 6Oohorsepower affair capable of
carrying u persons, making Its trial flights over
town. The Caproni works In the outskirts of
M'lan-and the Milanese are justly proud Of the
accompllshments q GiaGni CapronL JE
r I talked with Americans who have been taken
up in the Caproni planes. They declared the big
machines start of slowly without nerveracking
Jars ard after running few yards take the
air In a stable fashion that long way toward
rsassuring the amateur making his first flight.
f~e- Worldwide Traffic Predicted
Passenger and freight-carrying Capronis are be-
Ing built In three sizes. The first type, which Ia
the one that has been flown repeatedly over Milan
Is the smallest of the three In the shops the I'm
ishng touches are being put on machine that
will carry % passengers. This Is the midde-sized
plane. The large machine-the type that will at
tempt the Atlantic flights n monster 1t Is capa
BILE OF carrying 100 persons and its passenger cabin
ia being made comfortable as a Pullman car.
with padded chairs ana handsome veneer musings
n he walls. 1-AzHE w~-r -::-~S
The largest planes are fast. They make 100
miles hour when going at top speed. And 1t Is
expected that on long distance flights they will
make the fastest railroad trains seem slow means
Of travel
Caproni believes that within a very few years
the world will be covered with air lines through
which passenger planes will fly and over which
squadrons of high-class freight-carryng machines
will transport mail and certain kinds OF freight.
rates that compare favOrably with the charges
made by the railroad companies for performing the
same service
world, will be easily and regularly reached when
the regime OF air traffic gets under way Caproni
declares.
While the peace conference in Paris creates a
league of nations to handle matters of information
al interest such freedom of the 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 less modest, when you
stop to compare the promises Of the aircraft manu-
facturers with their actual accomplishments during
the
When the war started, long -dstance flights were
virtually unknown. Just 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 nc.
comnished time after time what had previously
been considered Impossible. When the war ended
the allied nations including America, were COM
pletipR an aircraft building program that would
have put such q feet Of bomb carriers In the air
that Bertha IKE Mannheim, Coblenx and the Rhine