Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-14
BY DON BROWN.

AirplaneS are due to decrease in price
and increase in safety until they are
within the reach of the man who today
can afford medium-priced car
Intensive experiments being carried
on by the Government, by private in
dividuals and by manufacturers are
having the combined result of making
planes safer and cheaper.
The increased production necessary
to keep up with the rapidly growing in
terest in flying will, of course, have an
important influence IN price reducing.
Light sport planes. now ranging i'll
price from about $4,000 up, will take the
part in popularizing American flying
which was played by gliders in post
war Germany.
The Guggenheim foundation for the
promotion of aviation is working for
safer flying, both in backing the ex-
periments in fog flying to be carried out
by Lieut.. James Doolittle, Army Air
Corps on Long Island and in offering
a prize of $150000 for safe aircraft
competition. which is to be open until
October 1929.
Doctors disagree as to what consti-
tutes safety in aircraft" it's president
Harry Guggenheim. said in a recent
article In Western Flying. But after a
years study and after securing the
benefit of the advice of manufacturers,
pilots, scientists and others, both in
America and abroad, the fund prepared
specification.
Some of the specified items have
been solved in individual instances on
different airplanes; the fund wished to
combine them in one aircraft that
might be called a fool-proof' airplane.
The invention of fundamentally safe
airplane will be vitality important
stimulus to commercial USE"
Limited by the regulations of the
treaty of Versailles, the Germans de-
veloped the notorleSS soaring planes TO
a point that seems miraculous. Under
favorable conditions they have achieved
endurance records of as high as IA
hours. Gliding has become such a
popular sport in Germany many thou
sands of the sailplanes are now being
used in that country.
There are signs of a revival of in
terest in gliding in this country: but.
free Of the limitations imposed on the
Germans, and with the greater economic
resources of the American nation, popu-
lar flying here will probably continue
to be motorized flying.
The appeal of the motored plane, OF
mite Journeys The glider can only fly
under the most favorable conditions
and in certain localities, and the fight
to be sustained must be all within the
limited area of favorable upcurrent.
Interest in flying Is growing so rap
idly on the West Coast that news OF air
activities is beginning to make a whole
some contrast to the hectic annals of
Hollywood and Western crime. Cali
fornia has almost as many licensed
aircraft as New York State and Illinois
combined. 1t has a number of i'm
portant lines running up and down the
State and to the East.
An automobile and airplane line from
Los Angeles to Chicago soon will be
in operation. A bus company Is build
ing automobile sleeping coaches to &C
commodate passengers who will ride IN
it at night and transfer early in the
morning to passenger planes. By this
means passengers will be relayed from
Los Angeles to Chicago in two days and
night.
Texas and Mexican air mail routes,
through which mail can be sent oil
rectly from Chicago to Mexico City,
have been started. The new leg OF the
trip on the American side Is from Dallas
to Laredo, where the Mexican planes
now make connection.
Air currents moving close to the
ground have sometimes spelled disaster
for flyers But Roger @. Williams, pilot
of the transatlantic Bellanca mono
plane Roma, was able to save the big
plane by this means on the recent un-
successful take-off for Rome.
When the engine began to fall shortly
after the take-off, Williams dumped 600
gallons of gasoline to tighten the ship.
But, while still out over the water, 1t
dropped down to within Is feet of the
white-caps.
williams expected the heavy plane