The Coconino sun., 1927-10-28

Member Tucson Aviation Committee
i Perhaps Flagstaff needed Harvey
house and no doubt railroad from
here to the Grand Canyon would have
been very fine, but the present crying
need is a landing field for airplanes.
A big field by all means if possible,
as, with an elevation Of 5000 feet here
it might take at least half mile run
for q loaded ship to gain flying speed
on still summer day when the air
is light. However a poor field or a
small field is SO much better than
none at all that it is we'll worth hav-
ing. Even 20 or 80 acres cleared
! looks lovely to pilot who is having a
forced landing. All aviators, without
exception, are very much averse to
clearing themselves a field as they
come down. 1t is very wearing on a
plane and will never be popular as an
outdoor sport. A plane can land in a
rather small space safely, but requires
more room for a take-off The army
and any commercial company which
may pioneer an express or all mail
route through northern Arizona will
ask for large field.
The air game is in its infancy and it
is out of the question to expect an air
transport company to purchase land
and build class A landing fields every
hundred miles, with smaller emer-
gency fields between Each city and
town must build it's own field. 1t
takes something better than the best
mouse trap in the world to coax air
planes to beat path to your front
door.
Become air-minded," said Colonel
Charles A. Lindbergh when he visited
Tucson on September 23rd on his ma
tion-wide tour in the interest of avia
ton. The United States is becoming
air-minded, and so is Arizona, in spots
at least. 1t is beginning to break out
like the measles. Tucson entertained
the famous colonel. because Tucson
had a brand new 1860 acres waiting
for the first plane to settle in and stir
up a cloud of dust An aviation COM
mittee, organized years ago, has been
studying aviation, dreaming aviation
and talking aviation to everyone who
would listen. This Tucson committee
found a landing field years ago. They
to the field by promising the venture
some pilots a free trip to Nogales.
Anyway, they got the planes there.
The field was too small and too rough,
so better site was selected south of
town. Many more ships stopped at
this field, but it was trifle too small
for large planes such as the army
Douglas transport type. So the com
hmittee promoted the third field. This
newest one has 240 acres cleared with
thousand more ready any time the
army officials make the remark that
it is too small. The committee is
ready for 'em Now they are working
to get revolving beacon light and
flood lights for safe night landing.
Flagstaff needs larger field than
is necessary in the southern part of
the state, as it takes longer run for
a plane to attain flying speed at this
elevation than near sea level. The
obvious thing to do is to build as large
field as possible at present, with
plans for improving and enlarging in
the near future. This is something
that can't wait. Planes are going to
keep on flying whether there is a
field here or not but they won't stop
here unless Flagstaff has a field
There is an average Of more than a
plane per day flying over the south
ern Arizona route right now and in
two years there will be two or three
times as many. When an air express
company opens new route through
the northern part of the state which
will be done sooner than might be ex-
pected, Flagstaff will be on the air
maps with good field serving as a
junction for a Grand Canyon Utah
line, or else it will be place between
two fields with Flagstaffites OCCASION
ally sighting ship passing over and
travelling at high elevation straight
for the nearest field to the east or
west. Once in a great while a plane
might have forced landing near town
where the malapais look a trifle softer
than usual, but these forced landings
in trees and rock piles don't give a
town the proper sort of high class adj
vertising. Planes are not perfect and
once in a while one must land before
it reaches its scheduled field. How
ever, on cross-countrY flying this is
not as often as might be supposed.
A number of forced landings have
been made this summer in the "Big
DRINK, with some of the ships and
craxvS raported aS missing IT is natu-