The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-05-31
AIR ROUTE WILL
BEAT RAIL time
New York to Frisco in
So Hours is Now
Plan
BY WINDER r. HARRIS
Universal Service Staff Cores

BY WINDER R. HARRIS
Universal Service Staff CORES
pondent)
WASHINGTON.- From New Yorl
to San Francisco within thirty-si,
hours is the schedule hoped to b.
ultimately established for the trans
continental air mail service which
will be inaugurated this summer.
This accomplishment, however
contemplates night flying, and thu
postoffice department officials de-
not believe 1t will be practicable t.
undertake that feature of the SER
vice before the summer of 1921.
At the beginning of the service the
schedule will call for delivery o.
mail between the two cities within
sixty hours, and as the kinks" are
smoothed out the time for making
the trip is expected to be gradually
cut down to q little more than fifty
hours Then the night flights will
make possible the cross-country mail
service within thirty-six hours, &C.
cording to the present plans. ~
"The original schedule for the
New York-San Francisco air mail
route" said Otto Praeger, second as
sistant postmaster general In charge
of the air mail service, lis laid out
on q basis of eighty miles an hour
flying time in the eastern portion OF
the trip, where steady high winds
are not encountered, and seventy
five miles an hour from Omaha west,
where high winds nearly always are
found. 1t may be possible, however,
after the service is in operation for
q time to make the entire schedule,
day in and day out, on an eighty
mile basis.
Under the schedule now contem-
plated, q mail plane leaving New
York Tuesday morning at daybreak
will reach Omaha at $3.50 p. m. the
same day. Starting again fSpm Oma-
ha Wednesday morning at daybreak,
the machine will arrive in Reno be-
tween and Z p. m. Wednesday even
ing. The start from Reno will be
made at daybreak Thursday morning
and the mail will be in San Fran
cisco before 9 o'clock.
III we can get night flying equip
ment, which includes field illumina-
tion, flares, ETC., the first days flight
would be made from New York to
Cheyenne, where the plane would be
scheduled to arrive about midnight.
The flyer then could leave Cheyenne
the following morning at daybreak
and be in San Francisco that evening
at 6 or Z o'clock.
While this is our ultimate aim, L
do not believe that it will be practi-
cable to accomplish it during the
first year of the service. 1t should
be possible, though, to put this
schedule into effect during the sum-
mer of 1921"
Comparing the original schedule
with rail transportation of mail
across the continent, Mr.. Praeger
pointed out that letter leaving New
York Monday night at $40 reaches
Chicago Tuesday night. The mail
plane leaving Tuesday morning
would be in Omaha at the same time
the train is in Chicago. The best
rail schedule from Chicago to San
Francisco, he said. is ninety and one
half hours, which means that let
ter leaving New York Monday night
arrives in San Francisco Friday noon
whereas the mail plane leaving New
York Tuesday morning is due in San
francisco on Thursday morning at
8 o'clock.
THE rail schedule" Mr.. Praeger
explained, "hinges on a connection
at Chicago, where there is leeway
of only one and one-half hours. This
connection is missed 40 per cent of
the time, and every time is it missed |
mail from New York to the coast
is delayed twenty-four hours.
Therefore the air mail can be
twelve hours late in reaching San
Francisco and still beat the train
by twenty hours, even though the
train makes the Chicago connection.
II the connection is not made, the
air mail should arrive fortyeight
hours ahead of the train"
Inability of the manufacturers to
deliver the necessary machines in
lime will necessitate a delay in in
augurating the transcontinental SER
vice, which was scheduled for July
|, Mr.. Praeger said, but 1t is now
hoped that everything will be in
shape to start the service between
August l and Is. The New York
Chicago route, now in operation,
shortly will be extended to Omaha
md gradually further west as planes
ire delivered, routes mapped out !
ind other arrangements completed. /,
Mr.. Praeger has gone to San Fran
'isco to arrange, If possible, to get /,
ufficient equipment to have prelim-
nary flights made from San Francis
% eastward during the Democratic ,
rational convention. II this plan {
an be carried out, the delegates to /
he convention probably will be in ;
'ited to send letters to their friends 1
N tho oocf hy tho f;rcf @ro,coo~&s ! .