Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-02-22
COMMERCIAL AIR
 NAVIGATION MADE
 REALITY LAST YEAR
Five Regular Passenge CT Routes Were Put in
 Use

New York, Feb. 21.-Commercia aerial navigation became a realit, in the United States during the pas year. The sudden cessation of hos tilities at the close of 1918 threy hundreds of airplanes into the mar ket and many of these were pur chased by private companies and re modelled for commercial use. Air plane manufacturers, whose ener gies had been devoted exclusively t. the making of war machines, als. { turned their attention to the com mercial possibilities of aircraft ant { have perfected several standard com mercial types. It is estimated tha here are more than 2.Q00 privatel, owned aircraft in the United States
 Five regular passenger routes wer, established; the airplane mail ser vice inaugurated, May 15, 1918, be tween New York and Washington a. an experiment, was extended tt Cleveland and Chicago and put or 8 definite basis; and scores of pri vate firms purchased aircraft ant utilized them for the delivery o1 merchandise and newspapers and fol conducting aerial forest surveys anG patrols.
 Still greater strides were made ir Europe and Australia where there are few thickly populated centers that do not boast of regular aeria, commercial traffic, either bv air. plane or dirigible, or both. The de. lay in the development of aeronaut- ics in this country was attributed by the Manufacturers Aircraft Asso- citation today to "the failure of the United States government to estab fish landing fields, enact regulatory legislation and adopt any fixed DOT icy."
 Inspired by aircraft manufactur- CTS, chambers of commerce in at least 50 cities have undertaken to provide municipal landing fields for aircraft, built on specified lines as plotted by city planners and off, cialS of the army air service, which has assumed unofficial supervision over the project, pending the adop- tion of federal regulatory legisla- ton. These cities include Buffalo Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadel- phia, New Orleans, Richmond. Va. Atlanta and Macon, Ga., St. Louis Kansas City, Denver, Sacramento Salt Lake City. Omaha. Pittsburgh Butte, Mont, Fresno, Calif., Scran- ton, Harrisburg and Altonna, Pa. Syracuse, Rochester and Albany, N ", Springfield, H., Columbus, O.. Louisville, Ky, Nashville, Tenn, Mo- bile. Ala, and Houston, Texas.
 Regular passenger routes already established in this country are be- tween New York and Atlantic City Mobile and New Orleans, Key West and Havana, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Los Angeles and San Diego. Lack of adequate terminal facilities is considered one of the principal handicaps to aerial com mercial traffic development. Ii aerial transportation is to become universal, aircraft manufacturers point out that there must be estab lished adequate airdromes with def initely marked landing places, con venient to business centers and witE facilities for housing the airmen ane their machines and providing then with fuel and repairs. At the height of 5000 feet. considered the mini mum at which commercial planes o1 the future will travel, especially over cities, it is set forth that ar airplane, the motor of which has be come stalled, could voltplane ol glide distance of four to five miles in horizontal direction.
 In addition to the regular route. a company at Seattle has started al international air mail, operating be tween that city and Vancouver, B. c Several lumber companies in tn, northwest are using the airplane fol forest patrols and surveys. A New ark, N. J., department store deliver ed merchandise by airplane to GUS toners in Asbury Park last summel while large Chicago clothing house made speciality of delivering clothes to college students within { lOO-mile radius of that city. A Ca nadian aviator carried 400 pound of furs from Toronto to Newark, N J., stopping at Clayton, N. Y., to pay customs duties on them. The nav! conducted experiments in guiding fishing craft by airplane at Glouces ter while the army conducted Z coast airplane patrol between Nev York and Newport News, Va.
 One of the strangest uses fol which the airplane is being consider ed is the spreading of the Gospel il the Congo states of Africa. A large American manufacturer received ; request for prices from the Cong, mission of the Church of the Disci ples of Christ, which proposed to re place steam launches with flying boats. The plan has not yet beer carried into effect Airplanes ant spare parts, valued ct several hun dred thousand dollars, were recent! sold by American manufacturers tt French interests, who are planning airplane commercial routes in tn, Orient. Delivery of the materia has begun.
 In Europe three English companies maintain regular passenger and par eel post service between London ant Paris and London and Brussels. On one of the trips grand piano wal carried from a London store to it customer in France by airplane.
 In accordance with British air craft regulations, adopted last April pilots of these commercial craft arr examined, physically and technically and licensed by the government landing fields and prominent point along the routes are distinctl, marked, standard signals are use' and regular air lanes are followed
 Two French companies carry pas sengers on sightseeing tours over tn battle lines and there is a regula service between Paris and Brussel and some of the large French cities \ Merchandise carried on the frs ID A<~ht 1~ %.., Inl