Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-27
BY MARTIN CODEL,

Commercial air travel is now an in
etitution that is here to remain and
grow-of that, there can be no doubt
in the mind of any person who has
Travelled the Always on the passenger
and mail lines already established. The
next steps in this newly developed
medium of transportation, as in the
early development of the railroad and
bus systems, must be improvement in
equipment and service.
Aviation, i'll fact, is repeating the
story of the railroads and bus lines.
First the highways" we're developed
with Government aid of one form or
another. The mails have furnished the
primary source of income.
The mail operators have been among
the first TO expand into passenger
rying on large scale. Meanwhile,
they and the others sought and OBJ
tanned the backing of giant capital.
Then the inevitable trend was toward
combination and merger.
Improvement Is Keynote.
Now the major efforts are being d.
rected along the line of improved
equipment, and competition is begin
ming to rest on the comparative serv-
ices afforded with such equipment.
The story of new technical develop
ments in aeronautics is being told in the
pubic prints almost every day. A fly
ing boat with capacity of more than
In Germany. The Diesel motor for
aircraft is going into production in a
Detroit factory. Devices of all sorts
and descriptions are being brought out
by the inventive genius of the land
Technical developments are of pri-
mary Importance. A simple new safety
device or new departure in aircraft
revolution in popular flying overnight
Give us method of taking off a plane
vertically and landing fiat" with or
without power, one important flying of
fetal told the writer, and we will have
millions of planes in the air instead of
thousands, as at present.
Not the least important technical!
phase of aviation-and one that in
wolves the safety and service idea to a
dio to flight.
Communication Big Factor.
In this concluding article on radio
flying" written after several transconti-
mental flights and numerous shorter
trips with the leading air lines. radios
future Importance to aeronautics and
what may be expected to come out of
the radio laboratories TO help flying
will be considered.
Two-Way voice communication be-
tween planes in flight and the ground
and Its value in keeping flyers informed
at all times OF their position and of fly
ing conditions ahead has been reviewed
in previous articles. This is perhaps
the most important role of radio in
Hight, but it is by no means the only
part that radio plays and will play.
The directive beacon has been de.
gFr1hnH--fha
whereby pilot can hold true course
through storm and fog. Marker beacons,
working automatically and using the
same combinations of dots and dashes
as the flashing lights along the air
ways, are being installed by the United
States Lighthouse service to inform pi-
lots exactly how far along their course
they have gone.
The directive beacon is being made
mult1-directional by development of
the Bureau of Standards; that is, the
ground beacon stations are being de-
signed so that they can transmit signals
of different characteristics which will
guide aviators along different courses
from fixed point. Compass bearings
and position finding are made possible
py radio, as IN navigating the seas
The Bureau of Standards Is working
on an instrument for translating the
dots and dashes Of the directive beacon
into dial or visual indications, thereby
simplifying that feature of aerial navi-
cation for the pilot. He now has to
listen through earphones to learn
whether he is on his course.
Technicians are working on instru-
ments using radio or radio principles
to give ground speed and altitude read
1ngS. The flyer today knows only his
wind speed from his instruments and
gauges his speed and distance by land
marks or the marker radio beacons His
altitude he can know only in relation
TO sea level or the level of the field from
which he started. for the barometric
alttmeter is the only one now available
for aviation.
New AltImeter Needed.
The barometric altimeter Is exceed
1ngly untrustworthy in the last so feet
or so-the altitude that counts most in
landing. Several new altimeters have
been devised employing capacity and
radio echo principles. Some are ex-
pected to be made available to CONNER
these altimeters that they give true
readings in feet to within q fraction of
a foot.
Such an altimeter will especially
safeguard mountain flying, for it will
show the height of a plane in true rela-
ton to the topography beneath. It will
prevent the danger of dumping" into
the side of mountain under conditions
of poor visibility
Speeding through the air at attitudes
UP to several miles, the commercial air.
plane of the future will probably be
equipped to permit passengers to carry
on conversations with telephone sub
scribers in cities along the route-or
even over much longer distanceS-in
the ordinary way. This can now be
done. but special equipment is necessary
II the routine weather and navigational
radio services are not to be interrupted.
A demonstration Of telephoning from
and to plane was given over Wash
ington several years ago when DR.. J. H.
Dellinger, radio chief of the Depart
ment of Commerce. from a plane over
head, carried on conversation With
Assistant Secretary of Commerce Mac
Cracker, who was seated before his desk
phone.
Later, when Col. Lindbergh made his
triumphal return, a reporter went down
the Potomac in the same plalae and die
tated a story of the progress of the
cruiser carrying the Lone Eagle, speak
ing directly from the plane to his Of
flee.
More recently. the radio experimental