The Daily Alaska empire., 1934-01-28
4nplanes
 PrOUe Boon
 10 Alaska

Modes of trdUel in Alaska
 are Uaried. Fish burners, hdy-
 burners, 1Uood- burners, gasoline
 burners and codl-baYners are
 au common. The fish, burners
 are the g-tedms; hdy-burners are horse-drdi0n Uehicles; mood
 burners, the steamers that ply
 the interior loateriDdys; gaso-
 line burners are thousands of
 automobiles and numerous air.
 planes, and the railroads are
 coal burners.
 Of them all. the atrplane is
 the nepest and is making the
 most rapid strides IL Is replac-
 ing to c large ertent the "fish-
 burners" and the "hdy- burn
 CTS" Where once t took 5oeeks and sometimes months for the dog-dYaten STe q s and freight
 and passenger Uehicles pulled
 by horses to reach remote points l0ith passengers and car
 %, today dirplanes set them
 dotcn speedily and safely dt
 1ol0ered costs and Uttal sdUings
 in time.
 An increase of one-third was made in the number of airplanes in operation in Alaska in 1883 over 1892. During the past year 42 planes engaged in either commer- cial or private flying. as compared with 31 for the previous year.
 The increase is not only in the matter of competition, but also in business as well. Flying miles for the planes were recorded at l. o59.l55 for 1883, as against 742,854 for 1882. An increase of more than a thousand passengers was chalk ed up, the planes carrying 7743 as compared with 6,637 in 1882. The planes travelled nearly 300 900 more passenger miles, with 1.222,- 510 miles as against 942,l76 in 1882. The difference between fly ing miles and passenger miles is accounted for by the fact of more than one passenger being in the plane at time
 The greatest and most noticeable increase however, was in the trans portation of freight and air mail, the poundage being almost dou- bled in 1883. The record shows 496 .6s0 pounds of freight, express and mail carried in 1882, but in 1883, there were 634,016 pounds of freight and express alone, with 151 ,570 pounds of mail.
 Many Companies
 Among the companies operating are the Pacific-Alaska Airways at Fairbanks, the McGee Airways at Anchorage, The Northern Air Transport at Nome, the Star Air Service at Anchorage, The Vein Airways at Fairbanks, Lerdahl and Pollack at Fairbanks, the Roust Airways at Candle, the Gillian Air ways at Chitina, the Reeve Airways at Valdez, the Alaska Southern Airways at Juneau, and the Alaska Air Express at Juneau.
 The private planes are fairly well scattered over the Territory, with one or two owned in each of the larger communities, there be- ing two such planes in Juneau.
 Fifty pilots licenses were in force in l933, distributed as fol- lows: Anchorage IS. Fairbanks Is, Juneau 5, Nome 4, Wasilla 2, Chit ina 2, Ketchikan 2, Cordova 2, Val deg 1, Kotzebue 1, and Holy Cross
 First Mail Flight
 Colonel c. Ben Eilson gave the first impetus to commercial avia- tion in Alaska in 1923, when he carried the mail from Fairbanks to McGrath, 6 distance of three hun dred miles in the first experiment. al air mail contract. He made the trip in 2 hours and 45 minutes, a great advance when compared with the IT days previously required by dog sled
 Made in midWinter, when wealth CT conditions were the least favor able, these flights showed the val ue of airplane transportation to the Interior. where distances are long and other transportation fa- cilities none too good.
 The present large number oi landing fields has been built ul since 1925 when the legislature made a small sum available fol their construction, more than S200,- 900 having been spent in building them by the Territorial Roa ( Board. There are now "A landing fields with two more in the course of construction at Nome and Cor dova. Ketchikan, Petersburg, Cor. dova and Wrangell have ramp' and platforms for hydroplanes, anc Skagway and Anchorage have floats. The needs of Fairbanks anc Juneau for hydroplane landing ia. cilities are filled by privately own ed commercial hydroplane ramps and stations.
 GroUth Indicated
 The important part to be played by aviation in the development oi