Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-01
Here Is an Arrhitect s Prediction ON Hozv Best
to Solve Ill the Problems for Flying
Terminals Of the Future:

airport to post offices throughout the city.
Pneumatic tubes already connect the general
post office Of New York City with its widely
scattered branches. Cans large enough to &C.
commodate 500 letters, are dispatched at 12-
second intervals and are driven by compressed
air about 100000 miles a day. The system
saves hundreds of thousands of dollars annu-
ally In truck maintenance.
Whether the airport of the future is the
kind described here, the fact that air mail can
be shot to post offices from the airports and be
on Its way to delivery in few minutes after
the plane has landed is evidence enough that
the pneumatic tube will be one of the many new
features Of the future city, built to parallel the
speed Of the mail plane.
In less than five minutes after mail plane
has touched the landing field its mail will
have arrived at the central post offices. Mail
clerks will sort mail In flight in much the same
manner as railway mail clerks now sort mail
aboard fast-moving train. And where large
corporations have installed their private pneu-
matte tubes direct from the landing fields TO
their own buildings they too will receive mail
In five minutes after the plane has reached the
field.
Contrast this with the two to three hours
that are lost today by mail trucks weaving their
way through heavy city traffic for Is miles
between the landing field and the post Office
after the mail pilot risked his neck flying $50
miles an hour to make the landing field on
time.
A MOTHER feature of the underground air.
port which is Of vital importance to ex-
pediting incoming and outgoing planes is the
straight-line service 1t offers. plane arriving
enters the station, discharges its passengers.
and II the next hop Is a short one and does
not require the plane to be serviced, moves
straight ahead to the opposite side of the
hangar, where 1t takes on its passengers and
ICONS down the incline to take of. There IS
no turning around or taxying from one end Of
the field to the other to get set in head-on.
WIND position. BY returning underground to
the side of the field at which he started to
land, the pilot Is all set to take of in the
same direction in which he landed against the
wind.
1t would seem the part of wisdom of those
who are planning for the great air industry Of
the future to develop airports on a scale to
provide for the growth of the industry and to
remove the handicap of their location.
The railway union depot enjoys its great
patronage because it is accessible to vast num-
oers Railway mail and passengers leave from
or arrive in the heart of the city or very near
1t. Steamer piers are easily reached. But the
airport may be 10 or Is miles away
For some years to come, owing chiefly to the
huge values set on developed urban property.
this handicap Of location will continue. Then
Underground electric trolley lines which. on
reaching the city. connect with the subways,
Will solve this problem. Subways for this pur.
pose are quite in harmony with the ultra-mod.
ern urge to remove to underground levels as