The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-10-16
AVIATION GROWS
RAPIDLY; SEEKS
BIGGER BUSINESS
COMMERCIAL TRANSFORM
TION EXPANDS TO GREAT
EXTENT; PLANES SPEED
AHEAD OF NEW RECORDS
By DEVON FRANCIS

By DEVON FRANCIS
CBy Associated Pre<sS
| NEWARK, N J., Oct. 16--Th<
ground radio operator drOnes an
to the mierophone:
Newark to Jones, trip 6.
Newark to Jones, trip g. :"
At his ear a speaker replies,
Zones, trip 6. to Newark, Jones.
trip 6, to Newark. Ten miles
east of Allentown, altitude 1000,
visibility unlimited. :"
] American aviation has come OF
age. In a decade the size Of
transport airplanes has been IN
creased fourfold, and in another
two. years the dimensions of to-
days transports will almost have
doubled.
improvements Are Rapid
Improvements have come so
fast that the aeronautical en-
gineer, designing a 52,O0O-pOund,
4O-passenger machine for 1888. Is
led to fear that he is understood
ing his mark for passenger traffic
in 1910.
| Look back a bare nine years
Lindbergh was flying the At
lantic. The standard transport
machine weighed about 1000
pounds, accommodated only four
or five passengers. The 400
horsepower motor was the wonder
of the industry; tomOrrow's air
! plane viii lift off the ground IN
der four motors OF 1000 horse
power each.
Look back only seven years:
The first transcontinental passen-
ger transport service was in
augurated. Only SO hours coast
forecast, it advertised; today the
machine which cannot cruise from
Newark to Burbank or San Fran
cisco in 16 hours is obsolete. That
first ambitious transcontinental
line, of course, was a combination
rail-and-air proposition. Its big
transports flew at 100 miles an
hour; today's machines. dwarfing
their predecessors, cruise at 100
miles an hour.
Machines Get Faster
The gyro-pilot, the clean sweep
of wing and fuselage, aluminium
alloy materials, the twin-rOw IL
cylinder motor and improvements
in two-way radio transmission
combine to produce a machine
which travels between Cleveland
and Chicago in an hour and so
minutes.
When the airplane was turned
to commercial pursuits in 1918.
the wing was still an internally
4 h,oaal ~&r,,o&,,xa x.-.4L r.
| covering. The covering, strue-
turally, was excess weight. En-
gineers discovered the "skin" or
wing covering could be made TO
strengthen the wing and reduce
/ the degree of internal bracing re-
| quired.
New Gas Made
Before the airplane went big
business, propellers had fixed
pitches. Maximum efficiency re-
quired low pitch for the take0ff,
a high pitch for flying In prac-
tice, a compromise in pitch was
found necessary. Now the pilot
controls his propeller pitch at viii
with the turn of a knob.
oil company research produced
fuels which would "burn" with
less residue and produce more
power. Engine manufacturers
could, and did, increase the COM
preston of their cylinders They
obtained more horsepower per
pound of motor weight.
What has happened TO Amer
lean aviation! Aeronautical en-
gineers viii tell you they have
been rubbing Aladdin's lamp 50
hard the brass is worn thin In
design, Improvement in fuels, the
stepping up" of motors, the de-
velopment Of flying aids and the,
expansion of the nations airport
system lie the answer to the ad-
vancements achieved in a roman
tie calling which suddenly went