Evening star., 1920-05-23
THINK BRITAIN PLANS
AIR SERVICE CONTROL
y. S. Military and Commercial Aviators
Base Belief on Activities of Handley
Page. Aircraft Builder.

plan to carry express by air After
the air express routes have been well
established and their operation stand
! ardized 1T is expected that a passen-
ger carrying service will be started.
The aircraft which it has arranged
to put in operation on these lines
includes l75 big Handley Page bomb
ers. six Caproni machines. 500 De
Haviland model 9s and ten Vickers
Vimy machines. The Handley Page
machines include few of the super
bombers, with wing spread of 126
feet. and equipped with four engines
| developing a total of l200-horse-
power. Such machines can carry
cargo weighing more than ton and
half. The other Handlcy Page ma
/ chimes are of the type frequently
Boiling Field. with wing spread OF
103 feet and cargo capacity of about
| 2,2o0 pounds.
The smaller De Havilands have
! carrying capacity of only a few hun
| dred pounds. and probably will not
be used to any large extent until
passenger service is inaugurated.
Men AMliated With Enterprise.
one of the men affiliated with the
new enterprise is John A. Jordan.
Inauguration and superintendent of
| service for the United States aerial
mail service. Col. Halsey Dunwoody.
assistant chief of the air service, is
| expected to be manager of one of
| the departments of the new COM
| pany, and Commander p. n. Bellinger
| of NC-3 fame is secretary. Former
Lieut.. Col. Hartz. who flew around
the rim" of the United States in
Martin bomber a few weeks ago. is
! TO he in charge of the traffic de-
partment, and Charles II. Day, former
consulting engineer of the standard
Aircraft Company. has charge of the
motor department. The remainder of
the personnel. it is stated on good
authority. comes from England and
from the American Express Company.
The activities of Handley Page in this
country is viewed in many quarters as
only part of a well defined program.
A few months after the armistice a con-
ference was held in London between
high government officials and British
aircraft manufacturers. resulting in the
organization of the syndicate which
Handley Page controls. The program
agreed on had three main features.
First the establishment of a civil de-
partment of aviation to encourage COM
mercial flying; second. employment of
aviators Of the Royal Flying Corps in
such work so they would always be in
training. and, third. a comprehensive
campaign for foreign business. even at
an initial sacrifice.
Visit south America.
Accordingly, British missions have
visited South America, instituted air
lines with British machines and British
capital, and are now doing a capacity
business. It is probable that these lines
will later be sold to the South American
governments, but even 30. all parts and
replacements must come from the Brit
ish factories A large number of Eng
lands war planes also have been ship
ped to Japan and to the colonies where
air routes are being established under
favorable conditions.
The United States. however. is the
most promising field for d commercial
air service, as there are in this country
many trained pilots who see little
promise Of utilizing their skill and
knowledge unless they accept this offer
of a foreign interest Commercial avia-
ton in this country is a meaningless
phrase at present
Protection Tor Industry.
Convinced that unless some steps
are taken to protect the American
aircraft industry against plans to
dump thousands of British airplanes
into this country. Senator Harry New
of Indiana yesterday prepared an amend
ment to the Army appropriat bill
which in effect would fix duty on
imported machines that would equal
ixe the cost between American air
craft and imported aircraft.
Discussing the needs of such legis-
lation in an interview today, Senator
New said that he had been informed
and that he knew that a British COM
pany had been formed to take over
thousands of airplanes used by the
British or manufactured by them
during the war, and to sell these
planes in the United States at prices
that would drive American aircraft
of the market.