The Washington times., 1928-05-24
| indy To work
Or j. s. LEAD
IN Il Y|IIG
~ Internat ionaI news services

4
NEW YORK May 24.-.I would
like to see the United states take.
the lead in ali branches Of avia.l
ton including passenger carrying. 4
Col. Charles A. Lindbergh talk
ing. The famous young flier who.
has accepted the position Of chair-
man of the technical COMMITTEES Of
the newly organized Transconti-
mental Air Transport. INC.
This s5,O00.OOO corporation will
within Il few months begin operating
Il railroad -airplane passenger SER
vice from New York to California
cutting down travel time between
these points to As hours
The possibilities for development
Of passenger carrying BY air are
great In this country. said Lind.
bergh. I'm going to assist the new
org anization in every way possible. &
Plan Well Backed
Not only Lindbergh, hut other
prominent leaders in aviation, see
tremendous possibilities in the rail.
plane method Of travel, viewing IL
as 3 big. practical step toward in.
ducing the general public To use air.
planes. Significance Is attached.
too, to the fact that two big rail.
roads the Pennsylvania and the
AtchisOn. Topeka B Santa Fe and
two well known airpIane companies
are behind the project
Investigation today revealed that
while Il Is probably true that the
-
commercial aviation, this country III
the one department OF passenger
carrying IS far behind Europe.
There are s number Of reasons for
this, according To The Index
Publication issued BY the New York
Trust Company
Aviation il not subsidized in this
country as ia Europe; the Ameri-
can railroad service between i'm
portant points, such as Chicago and
New York, II 80 efficient that the
alrpiane could not have any large
amount OF time except by night.
tying, Tor which IL is not yet com
pletely adapted; and on the Amer
lean continent franscontinenfaa
train Il not halted by the exigencies
q traffic barriers and customs
duties.
Germany Leading
IN Europe, however. transporta.
ton by airplane iii now regular
system Of travel. operating accord
Ing to time tables and III All lxinds
Ct weather Fares have heen re-.
duced to q point where ti1ey are
now about equal to that 81 first
class railroad The standard Of
safety II high
Germany appears to be- CARRYING
on the biggest ali. TRANSFORMATION
business abroad. Figures obtained
from the Daniel Gaggenleim Fund
Tor the Promotion OF Aeronautfcs
show the following comparative air
traffic volume ia Europe Tor 1926:
Passengers Freight
Great Britain 80 20.5s7 So fSns
~ -. $500 3g7 toms
ftsis s.ssI e e tons
Each III these countries showed
= very considerable Increase III 1927.
although final figures are not avail
able. In Italy the number Of pas
sengers nearly fripled and IN HoI-
land the number Of passengers
doubled.
More Planes IN u. :.
T.indbergn's new company its
hackers believe, viii start the United
States off on the right track toward
the development 0f the passenger
carrying business. The method Of
travel in America may be revolu.
fiOnized some say.
The United States ar vet does
very little passenger carrying BY
airplane, but no country IN Europe
has achieved as efficient and as sex.
tensive b system of mail transpor.
tatiOn as exists in this country. The
use Of the airpIane for mail and
freight carrying has advanced to
such an extent that there are more
commercial and civil airpIanes fiji
this country than any other.
Figures published by The Index
show that the total number Of conn
InerciaI and civil airplanes in Ger
many France. England and Italy
fs 1.S77 for the four countries com
bined. In the United States the &
total number of commercial and
civil planes is 1890. There are Is /
aIrplane factories in the four cOun-
try mentioned and 1OS in the United
E&nfau