The Winslow mail., 1925-03-06
AIR NAVIGATION,
IT'S DEVELOP PMENT
AND POSSIBILITIES
By WILL H. HAYS.

III AlUSIlCd SlIlCS the WI lSAC VI lOIA
ers made their contribution to civ
ilization on the sand dunes at Kitty
Hawk, n c., twenty-one years ago
The first frail craft flew few
yards, a few feet high, at forty
miles an hour. Now, improved
principally by American engineers
great planes mount five miles
speed 260 miles an hour, lift ten
tons and have remained in the air
nearly thirty-six hours.
From the bicycle shop in which
the Wright brothers first worked
there was developed under the in
centive of war a vast industry the
like of which in short time of Gre
alton, perplexity of task and actual
accomplishment has never been
equaled. Starting with practically
nothing, during the eighteen
months we were at war we pro-
duced nearly $4,000 airplanes and
nearly $4,000 engines.
1t was one of the greatest indus
trial achievements of all time.
At the time of the armistice a
capital investment of $100,000,00
was represented Including the
spruce forces 250,000 operatives
were employed.
Training had been given to some
1900 pilots and many magnificent
flying fields created, in addition to
enormous stocks of airplanes and
engines produced and on hand. The
industry on the basis of an eight
hour day was producing planes at
the rate of 10000 a year and en-
gines at the rate of $4,000 a year.
Engineers Of the American air.
craft industry deliberately set
about capturing or establishing
world records through refinement
of design and Introduction of new
ideas, so that there were brought
to the United States some forty-two
of the fifty or so world records, in
Guiding speed, altitude and endur-
ance.
An American plane, powered with
American engines, was the first to
fly the Atlantic.
American built planes and en-
gines penetrated into the Alaskan
wilderness at time when such an
overland flight was a marvel of
ground organization and daring in
the air.
E An American built plane and en-
gine spanned the continent from
dawn to dusk, flying at a speed
averaging $50 miles an hour.
American engineers and Ameri-
can mechanics designed and con-
structed the Shenandoah, demon
strating that the rigid aircraft mo-
nopoly which had been held by
Germany was broken.
Americans with equipment COM
pletely American were the first to
circumaviate the globe. Nothing
has been finer than this achieve
ment, aided by the splendid sports
manship of other nationals in CO.
operating to make the flight a suc-l
cess.
First among all nations the
United States established air mail.
1t is the most convincing demon
stration of the value of the airplane
as a useful instrument in peaceful
commerce. 1t is a complete refuta-
tion of the belief-and this belief
is one of the worst enemies of avia-
tion-that the airplane is solely or
even primarily an instrument of
destruction.
From San Francisco to New York
the mail planes are operating day
and night in an average of thirty
two hours. In the last six months
of it's operation upon a tariff basis
it has returned nearly $320,000 to
the treasury. The United States
air mail service is the longest regu
larly operated aerial activity in the
world. The transcontinental line is
the longest airway in the world.
The night-lighted sections now
functioning between Rock Springs,
Wyo. and Cleveland, Ohio, and
which will shortly function between
Cleveland and New York, consti
tute the only night-lighted airway
in the world, with it's 500,000,000-
OOciCOho OFClJ GOO
miles casting their beams $50 miles
into the night, with 0,000-can-
dlepower beacons every twenty-five
miles, and 5,000-candlepower flash
ing lights every three miles. The
success of the air mail from an op-
Grating standpoint from July l,
1924, when the regular day and
night service was established, may
be summed up in the statement that
travelling at three times as great
speed as the average first-class
train, the mail planes are approx
mately as efficient in their regu-
larity of operation.
During the last calendar year the
air mail planes flew more than
100000 miles and carried more
than 34,000,000 letters with a rec
ord of safety so impressive that in
surance companies have granted
patrons of air mail rates upon a
parity with older transportation.
Bankers are the heaviest patrons,
saying that it saves them millions
of dollars We use it ourselves;
picture companies are saving mon
ey by paying as high as 1888 for
one package.
Today the aircraft industry as