Evening star., 1928-12-09

Through the days of the pony express,
through the years when village boys
went down to the station to watch the
limited" sweep through with shower
of sparks, through songs of Rolling
Down to Rio on Great Steamers, White
and Gold" improvements in transport
have had a particularly romantic lure.
AS early as 1910 there had been an ex-
pertinent with air mail covering few
miles on Long Island, and having only
Il sentimental interest. Within couple
of years thereafter Zeppelins were
carrying passengers In Germany on a
regular intercity schedule. But prior
to 1914 it all amounted to little.
The nature of the relationship be-
tween the war and commercial aviation
has been the subject of much dispute
Undoubtedly the war experience dis
seminated ideas that steered the ascent
of commercial aviation in 1919 on
courses distorted and undesirable in
some respects.
On the other side of the balance, how
ever, is the enormous amount of re-
search done at Government expense for
military reasons, much of it equally ap-
plicab1e to commercial craft and their
operation Then there was the high
quality training given to great num-
ber of pilots who, upon rehabilitation,
became available for commercial aero
nautical pursuits. and the manufacture
of vast amount of equipment, espe-
cially engines, completed too late to be
put into service during the war and
sold for commercial use thereafter at a
ridiculous fraction of the actual cost
of manufacture, so furnishing an in
direct subsidy to the airplane builder
through his years Of trial.
Taking the case as a whole. there can
be no doubt that military and naval air
activities, both during the war and in
the years of peace that have followed,
have contributed enormously to smooth
ing the path of commercial flying.
X X X
IN commercial air transport, as in put
ting the airplane to work for the
military and naval arms, we in Amer
ica made the first experiments and
I then displayed great caution in fol-
/ lowing them up Even before the arm
istice the Postoffice Department start
ed the first regular air mail service
/ connecting New York and Washington
but it was some years before any fur
ther important step was taken.
In the meantime European countries
created and steadily expanded net
work of passenger air lines. operating
most Of them with planes especially de-
signed for passenger service.
! American air transport has been the
beneficiary of four successive impulses
since the Post Office Department began
the great experiment of putting the air.
plane in the service of the letter writer
Regular night flying was introduced
through the efforts of Col Paul Hen.
derson, then Second Assistant Post.
master General, in 1924. The Kelly bill
authorizing the award of air mail con-
tracts to private corporations and paw
ing the way for taking the Government
out of the business, became law in 1925
The air commerce bill, introduced BY
Senator Bingham, to give detailed effect
to certain of the recommendations o1
the Morrow Aircraft Board, of which
he was a member, was passed in 1926
and made possible the notable work o.
the Department of Commerce unde
| Herbert Hoover and Assistant Secre
tary MacCracken in stimulating tn
opening of new air routes and air navi
cation facilities Col Charles A. Lind
bergh few to Paris in 1927 and mad,
the whole Nation devotedly air minded
The collective effect of these vitaliz
ing events is too we'll known to neeC
more than the merest recapitulation
| Nine years ago there was in America 9