The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-01-30
Peace Uses of Aviation.

What is to become of the thousands
Of airplanes produced during the war
and used in it, of the factories de-
voted for more than four years past to
the making of airpianes, of the scientific
knowledge and technical skill that have
gone into airplanes since August, 1914?
1t is already agreed that we shall no
more lose the victory thus won over
gravitation and the perils Of the air than
we shall lose the victory on land over
the perverted forces Of man and the
diabolical menace of a military system.
War production has collapsed vet in
stead of a slackening of invention and
effort in this field we are witnessing an
even intenser application of brains to
aviation than we had before the war
came to an end. Accompanying it is
a program for the provision of an air
plane service which viii include the es-
tablishment of postal, taxiplane and
commercial air lines within the countries
and Of regular lines for air borne traffic
and passenger travel between the coun-
tries.
For the realization Of this program all
sorts of improvements are being de-
vised in the airplanes that have thus
far attained any sort of success--Far-
mans, Curtiss, Bieriots, Fobkers, Al
batrosses, De Hayilands, Rumplers,
Handley Pages, and new machines come
forth incessantly from the airplane fac
tories. Ten years ago the average en-
CINE for air flight was about 24-horse-
power; to-day it is more than 100 and
continually on the increase. The Ital-
ians are designing machines up to 5000,
and Caproni, the aviator, plans one of
$4,000 horsepower. For a speed of 40
miles an hour l60 miles are now record
ed, and the highest flight" has increased
to nearly 10000. The old distances
have become mere memories. Next spring
two trans atlantic trips will be under
taken, one from the american, the other
from the European side. Captain Bart
lett is completing his arrangements for
an airplane journey to the North Pole,
and on Saturday last a Handley. Page
plane, l24 feet from wing tip to wing
tip, weighing $1,000 pounds, and car
rying four members of the British royal
air forces, set out from its airdrome
near Ipswich, England for fight of
800 miles to Delhi, India.
For cross ATLANTIC travel it is pro
posed to have lightships and floating
air stations to point the course and fur
nish refuge in case of need Europe,
according to j. A. Whitehead, will soon
have an air service which, if the neces-
sary international cooperation is forth
| coming, will go far toward converting
the planet into mere neighborhood. A
constant stream of airplanes passing to
and fro Is to link the old world to the
new The Frenchman or Englshman
will be able to make Il trip to Rome.
/ to look in on Venice, to turn north for
a glimpse of the midnight sun and spend
his week end in Cairo with no more trou-
bic or expenditure of time than it NOV
costs him to take a few off -days in the
country. And from any European city
Toxic, Ceylon, Cape Town or Vancouver
will be rcachable in from 60 to so hours.
Some of this humiliation of space and
time will be spent to advantage in ex-
plOration, especially in the work of the
prospcctor But the bulk of it will 90
in the closer linking together of the
world in the bonds of commerce. When
permanent international peace finally
comes the ubiquitous airplane will show
it soonest of all. What we shall see
then is not 'the nations airy navies
graphing in the central blue" but the
realized vision of him who dipped into
the future and
Saw the heavens ill with commerce.
argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping
down with costly bales.--Boston
Herald.