Evening star., 1928-12-09

l1TLYING is no longer an art, but
l. a business, even as riding in
plane is no longer a thrill, but
i an accepted and orthodox method
of transportation.
AS a matter of fact, aviation today
is not only business but one which in
surprisingly short time has taken its
place in the big business class. Signs
point to an aircraft industry as strong
as that now engaged in the manufac-
ture of automobiles employing hum
dreds of thousands of workers and oc-
cupying an important place in the ma
tional economic structure.
The f1y-by-night airplane builder, the
fly-by-night airways operator and the
fly-by-night pilot are rapidly vanishing
down the road that leads to obscurity.
Their places are being taken by men
with great financial resources and ex-
tensive business experience. These men
have set themselves to the task of con-
solidating the airplane industry into
multi-million dollar corporations: they
have brought traffic and transportation
genius into the operating end; they Sc
lect their pilots with the care that cap
tains of ocean liners are assigned to
their berths.
Some of the romance may have passed
out of aviation and some of the glamour
NAV have died, but this loss is amply
Offset by the elimination OF irresponsible
operators, quack pilots and poorly main
| tanned equipment. After all, perform
ance counts, and the airplane, like any
other means of communication and
| transportation, must make good on its
own merits. 1t is obvious that it has
already done so. There are today some
twoScore aerial transport companies In
this country averaging about 81 900
miles day, Winter and Summer rain
or shine. Outstanding among these
companies are the several corporations
which, through consultations of vari-
Gus kinds or through the extension of
their operation territory, point the way
to development of the huge merchant
air fleet which before many years will
be the proud possession of this country.
Great trunk lines of the air are coming
into existence, and over them passen-
gers, mail and freight will be carried to
distant points with speed and in safety.
1t is impossible to predict the full
scope of the benefits which full-f1edged
| development of air transportation
would bring to the people of America.
There are many prophets in the field
Of aviation, and the better their imag-
ination the more apt they are to be
! accurate. 1t Is Impossible 10 oenne
the scope of future aviation. So far
as the benefits to be derived from the
transportation end are concerned, the
best gauge is found in the expansion
and prosperity that followed in the
wake of railroad development
x X
TT was the building of the Union
Pacific which opened up the treas
ure chest of the West, and it is per-
fectly reasonable to assume that SINH
lar results may be expected in the
huge undeveloped sections into which
railroads have not been able to pene
trate but to which airplanes have easy
admission. Sight must not be lost of
the fact that neither mountain nor
forest, swamp nor desert are serious
handicaps to aviation. The airplane
scars over these obstacles With the
same ease with which it skins over
the fiatlands of the corn belt.
About SO years of constant attention
and apainstaking industry have gone
into the development of the railroad
about SO months have gone by since
the air transportation movement got
under way in earnest. While it cam
not be claimed that aerial transporta-
ton has accomplished. in so months
what it took the railroads SO years