The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1929-12-12
FUEL COST PROBLEM
is NEAR SOLUTION
Passenger Carrying May Be
Made Profitable.

Chieago.-Air transportation, follow
Ing the tremendous expansion pro
gram of The. year just closing is cast.
ing about for some means of cutting
down the heavy fuel bill, and is look
ing to the development of the Diesel
engine TO reduce operating costs to
the point where increased passenger
traffic does not present the problem
of an increasing deficit, says David
Rotroff in the Chicago News
Cheaper enel in smaller quantities
for an engine providing horse power
equal to the present day air-cooled
radial gasoline driven motors will. en-
gineers poinl out, do much to develop
air transport.
4 traffic manager of one of the afr
lines operalipg eat Il Llieage aAaa
congratulated On the iaefeased irassi
over his particular route, produced
figures to show thai full load of pas
sengers on any one of the planes used
on that line represented profit Of
only SO to the company when the haul
was completed.
Each plane every day is not filled
to its carrying capacity, he further
pointed out, some flights as eonse-
quence. showing a loss rather than
profit. The problem of air trans
port, his figures showed, is in the cost
of operation, of which a large part is
caused by charges for fuel
Gasoline Prices High.
Aviation gasoline costs the operators
wholesale from u to % cents a gallon,
the prices varying with nearness to
supply and facilities for handling In
bulk from tank cars and on contracts
made with competing dealers. As q
result the average trmolored ship of
today flies at a cost of something over
ST mile to the operator. Some of
the ships with the more powerful en-
gines will burn enough gasoline of the
best quality to run the figures up TO
$1.20 an hour. These figures. Of
course, include all cost of operation,
such as hangers, pilots and mechanics
in overhaul departments, with depre-
citation of equipment written in, but
the fuel bill outweighs all the other
costs.
When one company made an expert
mental flight last summer with two
planes of the same manufacture, one
powered with a radial air cooled gas
oline driven engine and the other with
a new aviation Diesel engine. burning
crude furnace oil, air transport circles
watched with interest
Fuel Cost Cut rs Per Cent.
Information gained from the com
pany discloses that the new Diesel had
| been given exhaustive tests during the
summer and fall and that more than
600 hours have been consumed in
flights from which data of inestimable
value to the air industry has been
| gained.
The Diesel type showed a weight
reduction of over 20 per cent over
the gasoline driven motor, and SO per
cent less In fuel volume is required
while there is rs per cent saving in
fuel cost.
Because two big corporations are
| said to own several Diesel type engine
patents while the engine has been de-
veloped to high perfection in the in
dustrial and marine field, and new al
! Toys now make possible power plant
| of light construction yet capable of oil
combustion under high pressure sucn
as the Diesel, the industry has great
hopes for its ultimate general use in
planes.
Further block test experiments this
! winter are expected to prove whether
| the new Diesels will stand up under
| hiuh snnndc for nrnlnn rod nnrinlS