The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-02-16

Progress in aviation is shown
wildly by a comparison of one Of
the old army planes (above) used
in 1918 on the first air mail line,
with one of TranScOntinental-
Western Airs new speedy, de luxe
passenger and mail planes (cen-
DRAMATIC announcement
- that the government had
Cancelled all air mail contracts
and that the army would take
over the air mail routes starting
next Tuesday came as one Of the
biggest news stories of the year.
Newspaper articles on the sem
sational order and the charges Of
collision in bidding on contracts,
which caused it, are read avidly
by nearly every newspaper reader.
But to one Indianapolis man,
the announcement that the army
will fly the mail, is of even
greater interest, bringing back
memory of 1918, when the army
inaugurated the first scheduled
air mail service in the country.
He is Bob Shank, Hoosier air.
port president, who was one of
the original quartet Of postoff1ce
department aviators who took
over the air mail operation from
the army.
Equipment available for flying
the mail today presents quite a
contrast with the early day
planes used when air mail service
first was started, he recalls.
Mr. Shank has kept scrap
book of aviation pictures from the
early days of commercial flying
down to the present. Included in
the scrap book, nearly foot
thick, are many pictures Of the
old army planes used on the first
air mail line, operating between
New York and Washington.
TINE army opened this route
Il May 30, 1918, using both army
planes and army pilots. At that
time Mr.. Shank was at Love field,
near Dallas, Tex, as an instructor
for army pilots.
He accepted an invitation from
the postoffice department and be-
came one of four civilian pilots
who took over the mail service
Aug. l, 1918, using the old army
equipment, which consisted
chiefly of Curtis JN-5 biplanes,
better known as Curtis "Jennies,"
and Standard biplanes.
These planes had a cruising
speed of only about 80 miles an
hour and were scheduled to make
the 235 miles trip in three and
one-half hours. On one occasion,
Shank recalls, he ran into head
winds and the trip took hours,
10 minutes. With fast present day
equipment, the trip has been
made in much less than one hour,
he said.
Flying the mail in those pio-
neering days, he recalls, was any
thing but lark.
Not only were we flying ships
that did not have the perform
ance of present day airplanes,
but we had none of the scientific
aids now enjoyed by mail fliers,
such as beacon lights, emergency
landing fields, accurate instru-
ments, constant ground-air radio
communication, weather reports,
and directional and landing radio
beams for blind flying and land
ing" he said.
ct OOKING back on it now, it
IL seems we were flying
through fog most of the time.
Many times when fog closed in
under us, We had narrow escapes
in landing.
Il recall one time when, while
flying under a fog bank only
about 100 feet above the earth,
with visibility almost nil, sud-
denly battleship in New York
harbor doomed up. I was flying
lower than the top of the mast
and I barely had time to swing
my plane and dodge the mast.
AS I flashed over the deck,
heard the sailors shouting at me-"
On another murky day, he re-
calls, the fog was so low that he
became lost in attempting to
reach the landing field on Long
Island.
Following an elevated railroad
line into the heart Of Brooklyn to
the terminal, Mr.. Shank recog-
nized and began following the
railroad line leading to Queens.
flying about fifty feet above the
track, just below the low-hanging
fog.
CUDDENLY, he heard terrific
- noise beneath him. and at the
same time was enveloped in a
dense cloud of smoke. A train