Evening star., 1924-06-29
DRIVING A|RP[ANE
EASY AS MOTORING
Maughan Says Tax on Flyer
Is Mainly in Fighting OFF
DroWSineSS.
SEES NEW AVIATION ERA
Commercial and Mail Machines to
Cross Continent Readily in "a
Hours, He Predicts.
Special Dispat tch to The Star.


SAN FRANCISCO, June 2S.-Flying
e modern type airplane hour after
hour in transcontinental journey is
no more trying upon human endur-
ance than sitting at the wheel of an
automobile for the same period. If
anything, manipulating plane is
easier than driving an automobile
for the same number of hours.
So declares Lieut. Russell L.
Maughan, sun-chaSing Army flyer,
who this week set up new milestone
in aviation when he partook of
breakfast at Mitchell Field, N. Y,
and wrapped himself around a man
sized steak at Crissy Field, San Fran
cisco, shortly after dusk the same
day.
No Extra Strength Needed.
Human endurance, which is sup
posed to be the controlling factor in
such a long fight, was not a factor
at all, says Vaughan. At least, not
in the sense that it requires a man
of tremendous reserve strength to
perform such feat.
Here are some of the things which
Maughan predicts as the result of his
own experience:
Commercial airplanes, carrying
hurry up passengers, will soon be
flying from New York to San Fran
cisco and vice versa in twentyfour
hours.
Military aviation forces. of single
scatter pursuit, scout and combat
planes, can be hurried from coast to
coast for emergency rendezvous in
ffteen hours.
Government mail planes can main
tain twenty-four-hour schedule in
Guiding stops between the Atlantic
and Pacific.
Could Have Flown Faster.
My plane" said Lieut.. Maughan.
could have made the trip in four or
FIVE hours better time under better
weather conditions. We had to buck
fifty-milean nhour winds more than
half way. My bus can do 2o6 miles
an hour, but the greatest speed
reached in the fight was 173 miles
an hour. My average speed was less
than three-fourths of the speed pos
sible, or about 155 miles an hour"
Apropos his mental and physical re-
actions, Lieut.. Maughan said: THE
greatest menace next to something
going wrong with your plane is going
the temptation to browse was almost
overwhelming. Loneliness and the
never-ending vista of cloudbanks are
the cause. 1t is like counting sheep
trying to go to sleep-the same old
thing over and over again.
Unless military orders should upset
his plans, Lieut.. Maughan said. he
would not attempt another dawn-to-
dusk flight.
First Attempt Recalled.
Comparison of Maughan's sun chas-
Ing record with that of Galbraith P.
Rodgers, Americas first transconti-
entail flyer, is interesting. Rodgers,
in a baby" Wright biplane with an
1S-foot wing spread. started from
New York on September 19, 1911, and
landed at Pasadena forty-nine days
later. Rogers traversed 4,231 miles
as compared with Maughan's 2,S50,
spending eighty-two hours six min
uteS in the air and the rest repairing
his plane. Rodgers survived all of
the many perils of his hazardous
pioneering flight only to plunge to his
death a few weeks later while aerial
joyridinG at Long Beach. Calf.
1T is an utter impossibility to fly
across the continent in less than
thirty days" Rodgers declared to the
writer a short time before he was
killed.