The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-05-12

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| day will come when flying will be
made so safe that il will be a gen
eral method of transportation. This
is the unanimous opinion OF those
best acquainted with the progress
of flying and with the problems to
be met Always there will be &C
cidents-but there are accidents on
railroads and on the highways
travelled by automobiles. Neverths-
| less, those means OF transportation
are generally accounted safe.
| The problem Of moving from this
place to that, no matter how 1t is
done, always will contain elements
OF danger. So long as there are
obstacles. they must be surmount-
ed, avoided or passed directly
through. On the high roads. OBJ
stacles cannot be passed through.
On the high seas, waves and bad
weather cannot be avoided easily,
but must be combatted Once air
travel is made as safe, compare
lively as land and sea travel. flying
ships will possess the quality OF
being able to dive through some
troubles, and by their great speed
avoid others.
Our leading military aviators are
Of the opinion that several great
factors must be taken into consid-
Grafton to make flight so safe that
it will be universally employed.
First and foremost they usually
name the pilot. 1t is accepted that
a first class birdman must be an
exceptional man physically, and
fRa
proper sort. The army and navy
physical requirements for officers
and men are rather high, as was
shown by the enormous number OF
young men rejected when they
were drafted in the World war or
attempted to enlist. Yet only about
one In seven of the men acceptable
for other duty in the army and
navy are regarded as physically
fit to fly.
Once the physicl qualification is
met, there lies ahead years of train
ing before the accepted man can be
classed as a first-class flyer, as
they are now rated. Brigadier
General Mitchell of the air ser
vice Of the army, has pointed out
that the present flyers of the army
are enormously ahead of the flyers
Of war times. In many cases, or
course, they are the same men, but
in most cases their training had
been hurried by the war emergency,
and today they know much more
about their vocation of flying than
they did when they were flying and
fighting in France and at home dur
ing the war. General Mitchell
thinks that a year of flying, after
thorough knowledge of the ma
chimes is attained, is necessary in
order to make a man a real pilot.
Trained Pilots Needed.
1t would seem that a sufficiency
OF good pilots, as has been pointed
out in a former Haskin letter, is a
prime need of the nation, and one
that cannot be quickly supplied.
The war department and the navy
department are anxious to keep up
this supply, as aside from the post
office department, there is little or
no training of flyers in America,
while abroad commercial aviation
is encouraged by government sub
sides to keep up the quota of avi-
ators for prospective war duty.
II green flyers were permitted to
handle machines in the air, except
with an instructor in machines
with dual control, doubtless there
would be many more accidents. Be
cause of the care exercised in the
training Of pilots and in keeping
the physical requirements high, the
weather is first as the cause of 1y-
ing accidents. There are elements
of the weather situation which
have not yet been conquered, and
some of them have no solution IN
sight. 1t is estimated that three
quarters of the flying accidents are
caused by weather conditions.
Winds blow in all directions-upi
and down as well as parallel to the
earth. This is caused by the con-
tour of the ground, by the fact that
there is a wide difference in the
temperature of patches of the
earth's surfce. Over an area which
will be heated because of the col