The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-11-19
passenger planes up uxuOuy all convenienees
way of Australia and New Zealand Flying Daily to the Sahara Desert

way of Australia and New Zealand"
 Flying Daily to the Sahara Desert
 You have no regular line to AL geria as yet?" said I.
 No" replied Mr. Eynac. "but we are flying to Marseilles and Nice and on to the Island of Corsica, the birth place of Napoleon We have a landing place theer outside Ajaccic, and we expect to fly from there on to Tunis. That line will soon be completed and in operation. Another branch will cross the Mediterranean to Algiers. The distance is about 800 miles ever the sea, and it will probably be two years before this service is estab- lished- We shall have flights from Paris to Biskra in the sahara, and probably regutr service across the great desert to Timbuktu and our other possessions in the French Congo and the southern Sudan. Riskra is the great desert winter re- sort Of Europe, and there should be hara."
 The Saving in Mail Time
 "To show you the importance of our airpiane mail service,'' said Mir Eynac. during one month we carry as many as 10000 or 50.o0o letters from Toulouse to Casablanca which means saying of five days for every letter The weight of the Morocco mail in one month runs up to almost ton. The amount Of mail and freight cn all of our lines is rapidly increasing. The French companies alone in 1919 carried about seven tons of merchandise and less than .O00 pounds of mail. In 1920 the freight had increased 700 per cent and the mall about 500 per cent. Last year we had three times as much freight as we had in 1920. and the mail was more than IS times that of 1919. All of the freight is. of course, of a high class and the mail is important communications in which speed of delivery is considerable item"
 French Flights Which Equal Six
 Trips to the. Moon
 These figures indicate something of how our air traffic is growing" the aviation minister continued. Here are some more along the same lire. In 1919 there were four French companies which carried 55S pas sengers and made ssS voyages. cov- ering a distance equal to about seven trips around the world By 1920 the companies had doubled in numb ar They made about 2.400 trips and flew more than 500,o00 miles or over twice tho distance from the earth to the moon. During that year we more than doubled the number of passen- gers and had seven times the amount of freight. The results of 1921 were even more remarkable. We then had nine companies. which. made over 6,o00 trips and covered more than 100000 miles. This is equal 10 six flights to the moon or 60 around the globe at the equator. The num- bers of our pilots and mechanics have increased in proportion"
 The Prevention of Accidents
 What precautions are you taking al to the safety of airplane travel?"
 .'we are doing everything possible in the way of research to discover new methods to make our planes fool-proof and fog-proof. We are careful in the selection of pilots and mechanics and take every precaution to prevent accidents, At present no plane is allowed to go out until ex- amined in the most minute detail by enc of the aviation inspectors per manently on duty at every airplane division. This man must have cer- tificate from the government service of aeronauties as to his efficiency, and our examination is rigid We do not allow pilots to fly unless they have licenses showing their profes- sional knowledge of aviation, their education and experience, and their practical understanding of all air plane machinery. Every pilot under goes a strict physical examinati ton.
 Moreover, the routes of travel are carefully outlined and every airplane has a wireless radio apparatus by which the pilot keeps the airdrome posted as to where his plane is just as the conductor does the train dis patcher on railway. As a result we have very few accidents and you may count on your fingers the pilots and passengers killed in one year. Indeed considering the number of passengers carried the proportion Is so small that one Is, venture, much safer in the air than on the ground"
 The Question Of Profits
 "Will the day como when your air lines will pay commercially?
 -XSA bat I can not Deophesy as to