Free trader-journal and Ottawa fair dealer. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1920-1927, 1922-11-13
ARMY IN need
OF MORE FLYERS
Secretary Of War Says United
," States Is Tagging in March
of Aviation.
STUDIES AVIATION IN EUROPE
General. Mitchell Rsperta Result OF
Tive M9n:he' investigation Abroad
Legislation Neettd naquir-
ing Inspection OF Alrplanes

Washington. For the time being at
least ,he United States Is tagging he
hind the marH of aviation progress.
This ~, however II condition which
must and VIII be remrdied II Score
tary of War Weeks las anything to
say In tie matter and he has
The secretary Of war lately declared
that the European nations, particu
larly those of them like Great Britain
and France, that have attained the
utmost degree Of efficiency In the fly
Ing art on the military as well as on
the commercial SIDE are spending
much more money In the development
Of aviation, are developing superior
types Of machines ana In general are
quite few steps In advance Of the
United States.
Studied Aviation Abroad.
! The secretary OF war Is making
study of the status OF aviation here
and abroad with view 10 putting
the United States in the forefront OF
the march. He received lately from
Brig Gen. William Mitchell assistant
chief of the aviation service. the re.
suit of two months investigation the
latter has made of conditions In Eu-
rope.
incidentally Bill Mitchell, one of
the veteran flyers of The country, told
the secretary Of war Of a unique eS-
perience he had the other day IN the
vicinity Of Detroit when making a
flight from Chicago. General Mitchell
ran into thunder cloud which had
a length Of ut least l20 miles.
General Mitchell had never In his
previous experience ran into Il storm
Of this size Thunder clouds. always
u deterrent TO aviatorS, usually meas
ure about twenty miles and by flying
on the edge of them the aviator can
get into the open in short time. After
skirting the edge of this cloud for
some eighty miles General Mitchell
found that II extended still forty
miles.
Discussing his visit with General
Mitchell; who had just completed
TO Boiling field, Secretary Weeks said
that General Mitchell believes that
stricfcr examination and licensing Is
the great prerequisite to the develop
ment OF commercial aviation in the
United States
Before the general public can feel
assurance regarding commercial air
routes the secretary said there must
be- legislation that provides rigid in
specton Of airplanes and the llcens
ing Of pilots. Federal regulations are
deemed the most appropriate, as these
would eliminate discrepancies in laws
and conduce to uniformity.
Encourage Commercial Aircraft
tFrom the standpoint of the War de-
partlnent the development of com
couragemeiH for the reason that ii
would provide for the army Il great
reserve of competent pilots and 0tit
GERS In any national emergency
At the present time there 10 no law
providing for the inspection or regu
lation of pilots or their machines
when engaged in commercial service,
and this fact, the secretary Of war be-
lieves, has given rise to many of the
accidents that have occurred
As an example Of the degree of
safety which may be attained in com.
mercial flying the secretary of war
instanced The fact that one CONNER.
ctal line operating between Miami,
Fla, and Nassau has carried 10000
70 100000 passengers without an nc
ctdent. The sane company that op-
crates the Miami-Nnssau route Is now
Interested in developing an air route
between Detroit and Cleveland by
way of the lake.