Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-05-27
AIR MAIL A SUCCESS
Handles Eight Million Letters Between
New York and Washington.
IT Is BOTH CHEAPER and SWIFTER

Initial Experiment of the Government
Seems to be Precursor Of Air Routes
All Over the Country.
The air mail service between Wash
ington, Philadelphia, and New York
| has been in operation one year writes
a Washington correspondent This
year Of carrying mail through the air
Is less significant for what has actually
been done than as furnishing evidence
Of what may be done in the future.
The two airplanes which started a
year ago are in the service today and
are propelled by the same motors.
One has been in the air 164 hours,
flying 1915 miles, and has carried
572,S26 letters. 1t has cost, In serv-
ice. per hour, $3.50. Repairs have
cost $3.50. The other plane has been
in the air 222 hours, flying 1908
miles, and has carried 46S,120 letters
1t has cost, in service, per hour $48.34.
Repairs Of this machine havo cost
$1,874.76.
The record Of the entire service be-
tween New York and Washington
shows 90 per cent Of performance dur
ing the entire year, representing 12S,-
037 miles travelled and 7,720,s40 letters
carried. The revenues from airplane
mail stamps amounted to $159,700, and
the cost Of service $137,900.06.
From the Inauguration of the serv-
ice until the 10th Of August, the fly
ing operations were conducted by the
army, in connection with its work of
training aviators for the war. Since
Aug. 10 it has been operated entirely
by the Post Office department.
Record Of 90 Per Cent.
Tho service has been maintained
throughout the year with record of
92 per cent, gales Of exceptional vio-
lence and heavy snowstor1ns being
encountered and overcome. Out Of
1851 possible trips, 1906 were UNDER
taken, and only 55 were defaulted on
account Of weather conditions. Out
Of q possible 138,O92 miles, 12S,037
miles were flown. Only 81 forced
landings were made on account Of
weather and 81 on account of motor
trouble.
The Post Office department reports:
lone Of the first studies to be taken
up by the air mail service was to de-
termine whether visibility Is abso-
lutely necessary to commercial flying.
The first step necessary was tie re-
flnement of the existing radio direc-
ton finders SO as to eliminate the
liability Of three to five per cent Of
error This has been successfully
worked out by the Navy department
on an air mail testing plane. The Sec
ond problem was that Of guiding the
mail plane after 1t had left the field
to the center Of the plot for landing.
This problem has been solved by the
Bureau Of Standards in experiments
conducted on the air mail testing
plane in connection with the radio dir
ection compass. This device Is effec-
tive up to an altitude Of $500 feet,
and by the further reflnements Of the
device another thousand feet is ex-
pected to be added. Aeronautical en-
gineers are working upon device for
the automatic landing Of mechani-
cally flown plane which would meet
the condition of absolute invisibility
that could exist only in the most
binding snowstorm or impenetrable
fog.
Radius of Visibility.
"A years flying in the mail service,
with all types Of temperaments Of
aviators has established the fact that
200 feet visibility from the ground is
the limit of practical flying, although
a number of runs have been made with
the mail between New York and Wash
ington during which part Of the trip
was flown at an altitude as low as 30
feet. The objection Of aviators to fly
ing above a ground fog. rain, snow or
heavy clouds with single motor planes
is the possibility Of the motor stopping
over a village, city, or other bad land
ing place, with the radius Of visibility
so little as to afford no opportunity to
pick out a place for landing. 1t Is
generally accepted that with two or
more motors, forced landings under
such conditions can be avoided.
1.-THE fact that there were only 81
forced landings due to mechanical
troubles during flights makes a record
not heretofore approached in aviation.
The TRANSPORTATION by airplane Is or
dinarily twice as fast as by train and
on distances of 600 miles or more, no
matter how frequent or excellent the
train service, the airplane mail at the
higher rate Of postage should equal
the cost Of its operation. Whenever
the train service is not as frequent
or as fast as it is between Washington
and New York the airplane operations
should show an immense profit on all
distance from 500 miles up.
again, with large airplanes and
over greater distances substantial
saving in the cost Of mail transporta-
ton on railroads, would be made, pe-
sides cutting down the time OF transit
by one-half."
To Harvest Kansas Wheat Crop
s.-.or, y,ill pay S5 q day