The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-06-29
Colonial's Fifth
 Birthday July 1 Mayors Walker and Curley to Participate in Pro-
 gram

Colonial Air Transport will cele- brate the fifth anniversary of it's air mail contract No 1. the first air mail contract issued under the present plan. on Wednesday next, July l. on that date five years ago Major Tai- bot Freeman flew from Boston To Hartford in a Fokker Universal. There he picked up the then gov- ernor of Connecticut, John H. Trum- bull, who was the first air passenger on the new line. Both men have been invited to participate in the dispatch of the anniversary plane. a luxurious tri-motor Ford embodying the latest modifications in the Ford design for greater speed and efnci- .ency. Mayor Curley of Boston have been invited to officiate at the dispatch of the planes from either end of the line and the final arrangement Of these ceremonies awaits confer. ence to-day at which an effort will be made to bring agreement between the engagements of the two mayors so that they can talk over the Colo nial's short wave radio circuits be- tween the two airports and to the planes in flight. .
 Tests were made Saturday and yesterday as to the possibility of car rying this strictly aerial converse tion over telephone lines to broad cast stations and 1t was found that the regular radio, by which the pilot communicates every few minutes with the airports while the planes are in flight can be amplifed and handled as any other broadcast pro- gram.
 General John F. O'Ryan, who was the first president and one of the organizers of Colonial, and who is now a vice president of American Airways, the nationwide system of which Colonial is now a division, will go to the city hall in New York on Wednesday at about noon.
 He has invited Mayor Walker to go to the airport, but as the mayor must be at the last meeting of the board of estimate both morning and afternoon of that day, he will have to dispatch the plane by radio from the city hall.
 Mayor Curley of Boston is endeav- bring to find time to go to the afr port between two other ceremonies for which he has been booked on that day, but if he finds 1t impossible to do so, he too, will talk to the pilots of the planes and to Mayor Walker over the company's short wave radio.
 General O'Ryan said yesterday that the two cities might well be proud of the excellent record of operation Colonial has given them in cutting more than two hours off the fastest time that can otherwise be made between them.
 We began with few pounds of mail and passenger when there was room for one" General O'Ryan said. ''Now, due to the splendid support we have received in New York. Con- necticut and Massachusetts we oper- ate seven mall and passenger runs each way between Boston. Hartford and New York. The passenger and mail patronage Is continuing to show gratifying growth.
 Colonial plans have flown almost a million and half miles between the two cities. They have carried some- thing like 11,000,000 pieces of mail in the i've years of mall operation and some 26,000 passengers in the two years that passenger operation has been Q regular part of the serv- ice. Despite the so-called business depression the passenger patronage for the current year already shows that 1t will break all previous ree- ords. including the very excellent one we made last year."