New Britain herald., 1930-12-20
f5,OOO Airplane Pilots
 Now Have Federal Licenses

Appearance of Senator Bingham and Commissioner Knox of Con- necticut at a hearing on aviation in Washington early this week served to bring to light the great strides aviation is making in the field Of messenger and freight transporta- ton.
 All commercial aircraft and all aircraft pilots engaged in interstate flying must obtain federal licenses. The licenses for planes attest their suitability, and at present about 7,- | 000 such licenses are active. In ad- | dition, 2,350 planes have been grant, ed Identification numbers which are still active so that the total number of private aircraft now operating in the United States is close to ten 1 thousand. Licensed planes carry the symbols "C' or INC" before the li- cense numbers painted upon them. Over 15,00O aircraft pilots now ! hold federal licenses, which must be renewed every six months. Almost as many student permits are in ct- 1 feet Examinations for pilots nat urally cover the applicants mentali- ty and character background, phy- l sque and experience, as well as l ability. Pilots and planes not en- gagged in interstate commerce, and l hence not required to take out fed cral licenses, are engaged chiefly in i short exhibition flights at local fields.
 About one-half of the states re- quire pilots and planes operating within them to hold federal licenses. A number of other states require | cit her federal or state licenses. There are still a few states with no regula- tion over flying. The conference be- 1 tween states and the federal govern- men at Washington on Tuesday will strive for uniform state regulations similar 10 the federal requirements. | lnasmuch as flying has become so widespread that local enforcement is more practicable than federal, the conference will look also into the possibility of local enforcement of the federal requirements
 In 1929 there were IT establish lil'l.to liIdNIlG BidhfSt tlIS ll'S, OI parts, as against 7( in 1927. Their products were valued at s62 900, ,00O, as against $2l,oo0,000 in 1927. In the first nine months Of 1880, 945 private monoplanes were produced | in the United States and 9S7 biplanes "a total Of almost two thousand
 The department of commerce es- l miles were flown in 1926; 36,oOO,0 900 in 1927; 71,00o,0O0 in 1928; 135, 5,000.- 900 in 1929; and 69.000, 900 in the first half Of 1880. In the first six months of l930, scheduled trans port lines carried 20S.537 passon- gers. This was four times as many as in the first six months of 1929.
 The number Of airplane accidents has naturally increased with the growth Of air travel. In the first six months of i930, there were 270 air plane fatalities as against 2G3 in the first half of 1929, and 162 in the first half of 1928. However. 456, 900 miles were flown per fatal accident in the first half of 193Q, as against
 443, 900 in the first half of 1929, and only 170,000 in the first half Of 1928. Of the 270 deaths from airplanes in
 the first half Of 1930,- 13l were deaths Of passengers of which only
 22 were on scheduled flights. Gn
 1928, there were 109 passengers kill
 ed in railroad accidents). In all air
 plane accidents, fatal and non-fataI,
 in 1880, 57 Of every 100 were assign
 cd 10 mistakes of the personnel l5
 10 engine trouble, 9 10 structural
 weakness. 7 to the weather, 10 to
 landing difficulties and ?, misccl-
 laneous.
 In the fiscal year l929-30, the fed
 cral government enforced its avia-
 tion regulations on 6l2 occasions. Of
 these. l&% involved low flying and
 lO6, aCrohats. Twenty-tpo licenses were revoked and 164 were suspend
 cd.