The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1919-12-25
Radio Direction indicators Are
Improvements to Save
Life and Time.
NEED FOR CASH is ACUTE
Eight Planes Used in Mail Service in
United States and 81 in English
Channel Service Compared
Fog No Longer Menace.

New YOrk--New devices to safe
guard mail pilots and assure the sure
guidance of mail planes through all
kinds of weather are, now being in
stalled on mail planes and at the New
ark and Bellefonte flying fields, accord
ing to statement by Otto Praeger.
second assistant postmaster general
In charge of aerial mail. Radio direc-
ton indicators and new compass are
among the improvements which will
save both life and time.
In his statcgKent Mr.. Praeger goes
carefully into the aerial mail situation
Ia this country, pointing out that much
depends upon the attitude of congress
toward appropriations for the extern
sion Of the service. He contrasts the
eight airplanes in daily mail carrying
operations throughout the entire Unit
ed States with the 81 transporting
mail each day Il Great Britain and
across the channel.
"The fact that European countries
are operating more extensive air mail
services than the United States is due
solely to the reason that the post office
department has not been able to obtain
appropriations for the desired devel-
opment," he says. Concerning the inn
provements in air mail carrying, he
says:
with the cooperation of the bureau
Of standards, the signal corps of the
army and the radio section of the
navy, the aerial mail service has de-
veloped most powerful loop radio for
communication of mail planes and
their guidance through all sorts of
weather, even fog. This equipment
is now being installed on the new mail
planes and landing fields at College
Park, Newark and Bellefonte, Pa.
1.-THE radio set has a tremendous
range for sending. Its possibilities
have not been fully determined. In
stead of requiring masts from 200 to
800 feet high, the aerial wires are be-
ing raised on masts only % feet high.
Field Marking Equipment.
Included in the equipment is field
marking radio device which enables
pilot to steer exactly for the center of
his landing field, although it may be
invisible and obscured by clouds, rain,
snow or fog. The tremendous import
ance of this invention, which has been
perfected by the bureau of standards
on the initiative of the aerial mail
service, can be barely realized by those
unfamiliar with the art of flying.
"Fog is the aviator's most dangerous
enemy. A majority of crashes and bad
landings are caused solely by the in
ability of the pilot to determine his
position and the location of a suitable
landing place.
"A new compass has been devised
and put in service on the small planes,
but one of the most important contri-
buttons to aviation being worked out
by the aerial mail service, with every
prospect of success, is nonmdgnetic
and nongyroscopic compass which will
overcome the unreliability Of the mag
netic compass caused by vibration and
other disturbing features of an air.
plane in motion.
Through the encouragement and
actual assistance of the aerial mail
service an American inventor has
created a self-cleaning spark plug for
the powerful high-cOmpression type of
Liberty motor.
eve have every reason to believe
that these new inventions will do much