American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1919-05-16

Copyright, 1919. by Western Newspaper Uniono
SxsyzaA URN, Italy-Here in Turin, which
k2A was headquarters for the American
a. air service in Italy during the war,
e-=zzxEEr~ there are many American aviation
OI officers who believe the Caproni air
AM plane is the highest type of giant
IN W aircraft developed during the great
Es4RaGr5SH war.
- Gianni Caproni, the Italian engin-
- er who is the genius responsible
for the Caproni plane, has no hesitancy In giving
the Wright brothers and Doctor Langley of Amer
ira the fullest credit for making and developing
the first practical %airplanes and states frankly that
he was a kind of pupil of the great Americans.
Here is what Caproni has developed from the
American planes invented by Langley and the
Wrights, according to American officers in Turin
who are working with Caproni planes: Caproni
has perfected a machine that will carry something
like 5000 pounds of weight, five hours fuel supply,
aud with Liberty motors, American made, climb
1000 feet in six minutes. With a giant machine
like this Italian aviators are making plans to fly
across the Atlantic during the present year.
They may cross from Africa to Brazil or may
attempt the North Atlantic flight. They realize in
Italy, as well as in France and England and Amer
lea, that the first machine to accomplish the At
lautic flight will win laurels eternal, and you can
take it for granted that the Italians fully appreci-
ate the value of the advertising they will get If
they cross the Atlantic first. And they have also
a very high appreciation of the glory they will
achieve, because, like Americans, they are a people
that love to accomplish the seemingly impossible
for the sheer joy Of doing it.
While big Caproni planes are being tested out
in the north of Italy in the attempt to find a ma
chine sound and perfect for the gruelling test it
will get flying overseas, the Caproni plant t at Milan,
an immense institution, is finishing its first com.
mercial airplanes, which have comfortable cabins
for the passengers. The interior of an air-cabin,
as completed in the CaprOni works, looks very
much like the inside of n finely finished street car,
except that it is somewhat more crowded together.
If you had visited Milan during the winter you
probably would have seen the first Caproni pas
senger plane, a GO0horsepower affair capable of
carrying II persons, making it's trial flights over
town. The Caproni works are in the outskirts of
Milan-and the NIilanese are justly proud Of the
accomplishments of Gianni Caproni.
talked with Americans who have been taken
up in the Caproni planes. They declared the big
machines start off slowly without nerve-racking
lars and after running a few score yards take the
air in II stable fashion that goes a long way toward
reassuring the amateur making his first flight.
Worldwide Traffic Predicted.
Passenger and frcight-carrying Capronis are be-
ing built in three sizes. The first type, which Is
the one that has been flown repeatedly over Milan,
is the smallest of the three. In the shops the fin
ishing touches are being put on a machine that
will carry % passengers. This is the middle-siZed
plane. The large machine--the type that will at
tempt the Atlantic flights a monster. 1t Is capa'
BILE Of carrying 100 persons and its passenger cabin
is being made as comfortable as a Pullman car,
with padded chairs and handsome veneer furnishings
for the walls.
The largest planes are fast. They can make 100
miles an hour when going at top speed. And it is
expected that on 'lOng-distance flights they will
make the fastest railroad trains seem a slow means
If 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-carrying machines
will transport mail and certain kinds of freight, at
rates that compare favOrably with the charges
made by the railroad companies for performing the
same service.
Islands, now isolated from the mainlands of thC
world, will be easily and regularly reached wher
the regime of air traffic gets under way, CaprOn
declares.
While the peace conference in Paris creates
league Of nations to handle matters Of information
al interest such as freedom Of the seas and free
dom Of the air, the manufacturers of a~irplanes vii
have the chance to get ready for international fly
Ing.
Caproni. like Handley-Page in London and lik
the French and American leaders in the aircraf
business. feels that most predictions about the NJ
lure of aviation are more or less modest. when yoi
stop to compare the promises Of the aircraft manu-
facturers with their actual accomplishment durln
the war.
hen the war started. long-distance flights wer
Dtualiy unknown. Just as soon as the value O
aircraft was realized. every warning nation "a
busy building machines and previous records wer
smashed almost daily. During the war aircraft az
compij~hed time after time what had pFeviOu~i
heen considered impossible. When the war ended
the allied nations, including America were con
melting an aircraft building program that woul
have nut such a fleet of bomb carriers in the al
n at Berlin, like Mannheim. COblenz and the Rhin