Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-14
AERIAL HIGHWAYS
MAPPED IN WEST
"Main Street" Established
Between San Francisco
and Los Angeles.
BY HOWARD w. BLAHESLEE,
Associated Press Science Editor.

CAMBRIDGE. Mass.-There is now
a main street" of the air in the United
States, with the aerial equivalent of
stop. go and caution signals and of
traffic lane markings.
This Main street" is in California
between San Francisco and Los An
geles. It was established last May by
the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the
Promotion of Aeronautics and is oper-
ated Jointly by the fund and the
United States Weather Bureau, with
Army and Navy and telephone COM
pany cooperation 1t is an expert
mental meteorological airway, receiv-
ing from 33 stations, in an area 400
miles long and $50 miles wide. reports
each hour and half from $50 am.
to $50 pm.
The stations furnish information on
winds, clouds, fog, visibility and
weather, which are flashed by wire to
airports and to such planes as have
radio. Several regular air lines and
numbers of individual planes use the
service. Maj. E. H. Bowie. in charge
of the San Francisco Weather Bureau,
Guggenheim Fund. One of the scien-
lists who spent the Summer in or
ganiZing the work is DR.. c. G.. Rossby
of Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology, who describes some of the re-
suits.
Cost 81 to So Minute.
One of the regions corresponding to
an arterial ground highway control is
the airWay about 100 miles north of
Los Angeles. where the land elevation
is about 1000 feet. Here northbound
planes often meet a prevailing wind
from the northwest. Several of the
regular planes using the airway. DR..
RoSsby says, have an estimated flying
expense of 81 to So minute. BY
charting the air strata the weather
service estimates that saving is pro-
duced for such planes of an average
minimum of 10 minutes each when flv-
ing against unfavorable conditions
Much OF this work has been done
by the station at Lebec, Calf, sending
up test balloons. Their records indi-
cate tendency to morning Gains in
the first 1000 feet above the station,
with wind above that stratum. This
wind has been more from the northwest
than from any other direction Occa-
sionally above the northwest wind a
southwest wind has been recorded.
Hole" in Cloud Spotted.
When high clouds overspread wide
areas. it has been possible to stop
planes before they reached the impene-
trable section. In one instance such a
cloud area covered 100 miles of the
airway. with good safe flying visibility
beneath, but with no apparent way to
get into this vast cloud tent, nor out
of it. Several airports lay beneath it.
Because of their numbers, the meteoro-
logical stations were able to spot the
only "hole" in this cloud tent, and
flying proceeded as usual
The Summers observations have fix
ed an interesting characteristic of ocean
fogs, which may be called their liquid
nature. The Pacific fogs roll inland
much as tidal wave might turning
valleys into vast bays. running over
comparatively low lands, but stopping
like water when they reach high eleva-
tions.
A different type of fog is expected
to receive study this Winter when it
occurs more frequently than in the
Summer 1t is called radiation fog and
does not come from the sea. The San
Joaquin Valley, which lies in an i'm
mense elongated bowl beneath the air.
ways. is one of the locations for study
of radiation fog.