Evening star., 1922-10-30
Commercial Aviation Development
Now Our Greatest Necessity.

The fact that the official airplanc
speed record of c24.0J miles an hour
went for the present. at least. to Gen.
Bill" Mitchell because of the fact
that, when he made his noted speed
test, all necessary officials, foreign
as we'll as domestic, were on hand.
and when Lieut.. b. L. Maughan re
corded his mark of 24S1. miles an
hour only American Army and Navy
timers were on hand. so that the lat
ter figure cannot appear as world
record" is not OF so much concern.
in the opinion of the editors who
have discussed the wonderful per-
formances. as is figuring out what is
to be gained by high speed OF this
sort II high speed is necessary to
the immediate future OF aviation. edi-
tors agree that 1t is all right. but. in
view Of the number OF noted aVlators
who have been killed recently-men
that the services can i'll anord 10
spare. there Is suggestion that IL
might be q good thing at present 10
curb speed and concentrate on safety.
In addition, it seems certainty
that all records in flying are more OF
less meaningless at the present Time.
e
where will aviation stop? In call
ing attention to the fact that the per-
formance OF Lieut.. l.. }. Maitland.
who with handicap OF engine
trouble to overcome covered meas
ured course of 1856 miles at the rate
of 2o3 miles an hour. and did thirty
miles of that distance at the rate OF
aIS,l, was of even greater Importance
"A coast-to-coast flight the Times
continues, with one stop for fuel,
hardly excites us. A balloon TRIP
across the continent is not regarded
as any unusual feat. Humanity ad-
justs itself rapidly to changed condi-
tions. A good many OF us remember
W hen telephones were a luxury. Yet
today we can scarcely conceive OF
existence without telephones. autos;
we ever do without them? we stop
to think. There will be Limitations
to air travel, of course. for a few
years; there were limitations to the
Automobile and the locomotive. But
2&Sh miles won't sound astonishing
to our children's children.
This great speed is all right for
the Army" the Chicago Tribune ar
cues. but from the standpoint of
commercial development the gndlnS
experiments now going on in Eng
land, or which recently were made IN
Germany, are more important. For
commercial development. out of which
finer improvement must come unless
aviation Is always to remain a subsl-
dised science. we most need safety
and low costs Safety with caution
ia virtually here. The low costs must
follow, Public interest and patronage
will bring them. And such sensa-
tional achievements as those at Self
ridge Field will stimulate interest.
That in the tinsl ANALYSIS Is their frh
Worcester Post. characterizing the
nights at Detroit as "epochal in aerial
navigation" insists that they also
prove that airplanes Of the near fu,
ture will know hardly any speed
developments In connection with
speed tests and predicts the time Is
near when the mayor of Boston will
make an official call on the mayor of
worcester 'tn ten minutes"
The Seattle Times gets satisfaction
out of the performances as conclu-
sively showing that American manu-
facturers can build as staunch, as fast
and as good machines as foreigners,
and that American pilots are as skill
full and as daring as their rivals over
pressed by the Minneapolis Tribune.
that ut is possible that sustained
travelling at this high rate will some
day be common experience. and
that q man will have to go 800 miles
an hour before somebody thinks kinks to
And the Nashville Tennessean sug-
gests that tho airplane Of the future
literally will burn the wind"
History naturally repeats, the
oswego Palladium points out. in re-
calling. when in May. 1S4s. passen-
ger train on the Great Western Rail-
1ay in England ran 53.25 miles at
the rate Of 6S miles an. hour. 1t was
probably thought that man had
reached his maximum speed in travel.
Except for short distances that early
record still Is among the topmost
In steam transportation. although
railroad trains have run as high as
two miles a minute. A sustained
flight at the latest airplane rate
would take one around the world
In less time than q railroad train
would require for the trip between
New York and San Francisco"
The record Of these tests and con-
tests must result in more attention
being, paid to commercial flying. the Ap-
plstcu Post-Cresceut insists. tnasmuch