Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-01-19
Flying Across Sea Regarded as a Certainty

OCl ldHIly
S ute t s,S to New York than any
Various devices Of srsa. value .rs
restricted areas suoh as are avail.
able In cities will not be possible
until an airbrake 10 worked out, and
that eludes 10 Mt the present time.
slxty-nve miles an hour, which means
that they must have 200 to 600. or
even 1000 feet Of space to run down
ia, for no airbrake at present known
them. '' W. shaii have s one o. whieS VIE
before long. though, I am confident,
And q machine at present requires
from 800 to 1900 feet in which to
get get running start We may reduce
Fields with the necessary 1900 to
1,400 feet of clear space for starting
ana stopping are unavailable in great
cities. The result Is that in Phila.
lights fourteen miles from the hearts
of things and in Washington eight
miles from tho business section Of
the city. This means delay In mail
gain over railroad transport Of long
hight speed. We are trying to overs
come 1t by lessening the area needed
not only BY perfecting an air brake
which will help. us in landing In
velopment of q variable-wing ut.
tachment which will help us get up
quickly. The Army tried one varia~
ble-wing device, but 1t was f1imsily
built and resulted In an accident. y
can be mastered.
Several kinds of air mail devices
are being worked out. One provides
for picking up and dropping mail
without interrupting actual flight. A
naval lieutenant has picked up 157
pounds of mall while flying at seven.
ty miles an hour. He dropped a rope
to motor boat containing the sacks
and travelling at fifteen miles an hour.
Sixty feet of the rope were Of elass
Ito material. which absorbed the Jerk,
saving the plane from what other.
wise would have been a nasty shock.
That device Is in process Of Develop
ment And there are others.
''The matter of signals which can
be read in bad weather and at great
heights enabling aviators to make
sure Of the location Of landing fields
Is also getting careful attention. The
plan which radiates electric magnetic
waves upward in an inverted conc.
An aviator travelling by compass, out
OF sight OF the surface. sees nothing,
but as he nears the field he begins
in a wrong direction he passes out
of the conc and loses the signal. The
remaining necessity is merely that h6
should feel about bit until he gets
Light signals are effective at night,
both the vertical beam and the Hood
light having proved their usefulness.
zone more word about the landing
problem. Water landings would be
ideal. but are impractical in the neigh
because Of ice conditions in winter.
I understand that this difficulty does
!, not exist SO definitely either In Lon
don or Paris and each has its available
river.
"Our cold winters complicate our
situation rather seriously, in fact,
necessitating the choice Of southern
routes for transcontinental flights in
about one-th1rd of the twelve months.
The first transcontinental route will be
northern. however, logical Develop
ment of the New York and Chicago
service. We hope to make regular
flights on this route beginning within
a few weeks from the present time.
AT present we nave not carried mail
by air route west Of Chicago. In that
vast territory certain special condf-
lions need study and particular ar
rangements. We are working on the
mountain problems in the east, over
the Al1eghanies, but these are not as
difficult as those to be found over the
Rockies and other western American
mountain ranges will prove to be.
These probably duplicate Alpine condf.
lions. We have gone far enough In
this as In other details to know that
a thousand things can be done in the
air occasionally which cannot be done
with certainty as parts of a regular
program. We have made no study Of
airships Of the Zeppelin type in the
United States.
TO sum up, may say that America
has learned to believe in the imme-
date possibilities Of mail delivery by
air over land routes The American
experts remain a little skeptical about
present possibilities Of transoceanio
flight, but none doubts that such flight
will be achieved in time"
Copyright, 1919, by the Edward Marshall
Syndicate, Inc.)
The Difficult Maid.