Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05
AVIATION
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON.

~ EGINNING tomorrow foul
r. - airmail planes will take of
from Boiling Field, each q
hours carrying mail to the
North and South. Today the
first Sunday airmail service tc
and from this city will begin
Both expansions are tribute to
the vastly increased use OF the
r. airmail by the American people
, and to the demand for greater
3 use of the airplane to speed up
!. the communication which affect
:, the daily life Of the Nation.
May is a great month in local
;" airmail history, the first airmail
service in the United States be-
- tween this city and New York
s having been inaugurated IL years
ago this month and the present
New York-Atlanta line having
been opened on the night OF May
. /, 1928.
The increases in service which
to are to become effective today and
5 tomorrow should serve to dispel
= any element of doubt which may
> linger in the mind of any one re-
!. garding the establishment OF
aerial transportation as perma-
nent factor in our present clvlll-
cation.
: The expansion of service which
! is about to go into effect on the
, local route is only part of a SIM
liar expansion affecting service IN
every part of the country. Last
Wednesday the number OF mail
, planes flying daily over the trans
y continental line from New York
to San Francisco was doubled as
regular day and night services
went into effect all along the line.
The past II years have been years
of struggle. disbursement and
uncertainty for pilots and execu-
tives who have built up the mail
- plane lines. They are only begin
ming to realize today the security
: of the foundations they have laid.
Feeling of Early Flyers.
The feeling of the early airmail
people that their efforts were
misunderstood and their implicit
a faith in the ultimate success OF
! the service have had their finest
o expression in the words Of one OF
q the early mail pilots who died in
; line of duty. In letter which he
:, wrote shortly before he was killed
u in a crash and which he requested
be delivered to his mother in event
of his death, Brooke Pearson,
better known to his fellow pilots
as Jap" said:
IT trust your eyes may never see
this but should God desire that
you do, you at least know He has
called me like many more who
have given their lives for the
future of this wonderful game. I
was possibly wrong in not giving
it up; possibly I might have
thought the same. but choose to
keep at it and pray that some
thing of use has been learned.
The world in general calls us
silly fools, but it's the silly fools
who make the sacrifices that help
to perfect any great thing that
the world in general benefits by
later"
Pearson died and many of his
fellows died. Their deaths re-
suited in better planes, better
landing fields and more of them,
DEUEL. y4A1S 441oOA AAAACAAVo eAA0 AAA
the throwing Of more and more
safeguards around the pilots who
fly the mail. The results. have
been apparent in a decade of
growth never equaled in trans
portation history.
New Levels Reached Constantly.
Today airplanes are flying more
than 10000 miles every "a hours
carrying the mail. Increased
schedules and additional routes
are bringing this figure up to new
levels constantly. And, at that,
the demands for new service are
increasing more rapidly than
operations of the airmail lines can
be extended.
Only this week a delegation Of
prominent st. Louis business men
few to this city to appeal person
ally to the Post Office Department
for direct airmail service between
st. Louis and New York by way Of
Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. APP
plication has been pending for
some time for airmail service be-
tween Washington and Pittsburgh.
Many other applications for new
lines or extensions of old lines in
all parts Of the country are on
file.
Public use of the airmail has
increased beyond all expectation.
On the New York Atlanta