Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-24
BY DONALD Z. KEYHOE.

TWO thousand feet above the
Rocky Mountains a roaring mail
plane races westward to the
Pacific over the transcontinen-
tai airway-one of the So air.
ways that crisscross the United States
IN a rapidly growing network. In its
mail compartment are letters picked up
at New York, Cleveland, Chicago and
other cities where the planes stop, like
the old pony express. for fieeting mo-
ment before speeding on. Days before
train mail can be delivered from the
East there messages will have been read
in San Francisco and other Western
business ofices-read and answered by
air mail that will pass the west-bound
trains on Its way back.
Once the only air mail trail across
the country, the famous Transconti-
mental, now makes up only 2,665 miles
of the total 1900 airway mileage.
North. South, East West-new routes
have come into operation, linking dis
tant cities with overnight service by
planes that fly 10000 miles every "a
hours. SO rapidly has the air mail
service grown that by the end of 1929
there will be some $4,000 miles Of air
ways, over which planes will fly $4,000
miles each day.
Nor is the mail the only service. for
with the advent Of multi-engined cabin
planes passenger travel Is swiftly be-
coming popular. Air express, also, is
increasing steadily In volume.
"Airway"-once but a name-has
ceased to designate an invisible and
vaguely mentioned course through the
air. For beneath these invisible lanes
lie hundreds of towers with powerful
beacon lights and marked, lighted in
termediate fields, signal devices and
weather-reporting systems. Throughout
this huge organization there is a con-
slant activity, with weather observers
on watch, communication experts
flashing reports and warnings to air
ports and by radio to planes en- route
ready to give help or signal the planes
to come down, If necessary. L
The desolate stretches Owe: which
mail pilots used to ny, grimly aware
that a dead motor meant crack up"
now are dotted with rotating beacons,
lighthouses Of the air, placed at every
10 miles. Safe landing fields follow IN
regular order at every third light. Out
lining the landing areas, the boundary
lights of these ports Of storm twinkle
up cheerfully into the night, while
green lights indicate lanes of approach
and red lights warn pilots of trees,
wires and buildings over which they
must glide before settling the wheels OF
their ships on carefully prepared flelds.
As the passing mail pilot flies over
head he has a swift glimpse of the field
caretaker, waving up at him in an UNI
oficial "alls well' before going in to
report the planes passage to communi-
cation center.
EEW air passengers, and probably
not many pilots, give thought to
the men whose trying and hazardous
duty It Is to lay out the civil airways.
Yet these men are trail blazers Of the
air. They form clan in which expert
plotting. engineering ability. diplomacy
and resourcefulness are only q few OF
the varied qualifications. They are the
airways extension superintendent OF
the aeronautics branch, Department Of
Commerce, which is charged by law
with the establishment and mainten-
ance Of the airways.
Each airway is o new problem. At
present the extension superintendent
are surveying part Of the San Francisco
Seattle airway for lighting. One section
passes over the Shasta Canyon. q most
difficult country to survey.
Other airmen are working on the At
Anta-C Chicago route, one Of the inpor-
tant new airways. Their work is much
easier In this case than that which they
experienced on the Salt Lake City Great
Falls route, where severe Winter wealth
er made 1t impossible to install fields
and lights.
Another route which Is receiving the
departments attention Is that of Trans
continental Air Transport, which Is 10
combine railroad service with a.iplane
passage, using q northeast to southwest
course from New York to Los Angeles.
This route has been selected 20 follow
very level country, so that the interme-
diate fields viii be obtained quite easily
Anyways connecting this country with
It's neighborS on the north and south
are being SURVEYED for installation Of
proper equipment. These are the routes
between New York and Montreal, on
which the United States will install
part Of the facilities, and the route from
Laredo to Fort Worth.
BY the end of next June there will
be 1850 miles Of lighted Always added
10 those now In operation, and new
routes win be ready for survey.
Laying out an airway might seem an
easy matter-merely the drawing of a
line on q map connecting two cities,
apotting of lights at every 10 miles and
fields at 30-mile intervals But the line
may have to be bent to cut through a
mountain pass, lights may have to be
placed on canyon sides to guide FLAMES