Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-18

Christopher Is Instructor.
Coast Guard flyers will be taught
how to fly the new ships by Luke
Christopher, newly appointed lieuten-
ant. A former Army flyer, former test
QUOT for the = - c. A.. former sec
rotary Of the n. A. A. Contest Com
n'ittee. the genial Luke is peculiarly
Iitted Cor his task with the Coast
Guard He is now on duty in the
office of Comdr. Norman B. Hall, chief
OF Coast Guard aviation, in the Treas
ury Department.
The new planes, built exclusively for
rescue work at sea, will not be used
In the detection Of SmugglerS accord
ing to officers of the Coast Guard
Specially equipped with the finest
mechanism in the world for life saw
b ing work, their activities will be con-
fined solely to patroling the coast and
keeping lookoutS for airplanes and YES
sells in distress A feature of their
equipment is a radio direction finder
which enables pilots to tune in on any
plane or ship calling fer assistance, no
matter what the wave length.
An example of the type of work a
Coast Guard plane can accomplish in
about one-tenth the time and at about
CnC-tenth the cost Of a ship. was re-
dated BY one of the services officers the
other day.
Helped Tug Find Tow.
"a tug proceeding along the New
Jersey coast reported it had lost its
tow and was unable to find it." he
said. "A Coast Guard plane was dis
patched to the scene. In an hour the
plane had located the tow. shortly aft
erward found the tug about 80 miles
away, and in two and a quarter hours
altogether. was back at its base its
task completed.
without airplanes. the Coast Guard
would have had to send out a cutter
from New York. which could not have
arrived at the spot before the next day
In all the plane covered nearly 1000
square miles of ocean"
Included in the plans to enlarge the
aviation activities of the service is the
construction of an aerial base at Miami
Fla. Such station is needed for the
protection of the exceedingly heavy flow
Of airplaneS between Miami and Ha-
Nana and South America. Comdr. Hall
was IN conference over the week end
with the city manager of Miami. con-
summating plans for the base. erection
OF which he hopes to have under way
within a week. A 1OO-foot square two
plane hangar will be built.
When Atlantic coast protection thus
y finally built up, Coast Guard officials
hope to establish a chain of bases along
the Pacific and Gulf coasts. equipped
with the flying boats. However, with
President Hoover insisting upon econ
omy, they probably will not seek in
creased appropriations from Congress in
the near future
New Army Planes Ordered.
The latest batch of contracts award
ed by the Army Air Corps for new
eS9ipment is in some respects the most
interesting which has been placed since
the hVe-year program began. These
contracts will bring into existence five
types Of fighting planes of distinctive
design, unlike anything now in the
Nations combat squadrons.
The contracts call for a total of ga
planes, 18 of which are standard type
O-38B observation biplanes for the
National Guard squadrons. The other
80 planes are all monoplanes. in itself
an innovation in Army fighting types,
and Is of the 35 are of the low-winq
type now becoming common in high
speed commercial development
One of the most startling departures
from the conventional disclosed by the
announcement of the new contracts Is
in an order for five pursuit planes
awarded to Detroit Aircraft CORPORA
ton. These planes are to be two-seater
1oW-Wing monoplanes, significant when