Evening star., 1937-08-29
LUXURY A|RL|NERS
SHRINK j. s. MAP
Pioneer Passengers of 1927
Fly With Real Speed and
Comfort Now.

Ten years Of swift development have
seen cross country commercial flying
in the United States progress from an
art" to an exact Science" with
schedules and fares cut in half.
On September l. 1927. the first
coast coast passengers crowded into
two-place cockpit between mail
pits. paying $40o for the privilege Of
an uncomfortable, 33-hour journey
with IA scheduled landings.
Today passengers make the New
York-San Francisco journey in 1873
hours at 4 cost Of $40 so aboard lux
ury liners equipped with every facility
for comfort and convenience.
A decade ago the single-engined
planes refueled every $50 miles. flying
low through rough air because their
engines were not supercharged for
higher attitudes and there was no
radio equipment as a substitute for
sight OF ground navigation.
Adventure for Pioneers.
Passenger traffic was secondary to
mail transport and little provision was
made for the convenience OF early
transcontinental fares" After 80
hours in cramped, noisy, windy quar-
tiers. with only box lunch for sub
si,tence, the passenger Of 1927 was
apt to regard the night across the
country as an Adventure" not to be
undertaken again soon.
But the New York, Chicago and
San Francisco air route was regarded
as Of primary importance IN the de-
velopment OF commercial aviation. It
became = means Of testing long-dis
tance flying equipment and training
personnel.
First came the plane-ground voice
RADIO then the directive radio beam.
Aids to navigation were perfected
along with improvements in body de-
sign and power plants.
1880 Adds Comforts.
Only = few hundred persons flew
from coast to coast in 1927 and 1928.
In 1880 the United Air Lines put tr-
motored ships in operation with their
increased passenger space and comfort.
That same year the company began to
pioneer in the flying of passengers on
long distance night schedules.
At about this time United began ex-
perimenting with stewardess service
and the innovation proved SO popular
1t was adopted by other lines. The
company united its operating divisions
in 1881, launching re-equipment
program that brought $5O0O,O0O
fleet Of high-speed, twin-engined
transports into service. The sched-
ules by 1888 had been reduced by 4
third.
This improvement of equipment was
due in part to constant speed pro-
pellers, automatic mixture control, au-
tomato pilots, additional radio facili-
ties. instrument flying and the de-
velopment Of supercharged engines
for high attitudes. Thus this year the
schedule was reduced from 20 to l5la
hours.
Better Equipment Appears.
On the tenth anniversary Of coast
to-coast commercial flying the COM
pany is now completing a re-equipment
program.
Three new types of airliners will be
added-overnight sleepers, flying from
coast to coast without the loss OF busi-
ness hours: "skylounge' liners for
extra-fare service, and club type, a.
passenger mainliners
Engineers now are planning sched-
ules to be put into effect next year by
30-ton airliners which will carry 10
passengers.
The company's 2633-mile Calfor-
MIA -Chicago-New York route has be-
come in decade the worlds leader in
traffic ton miles flown, it was said.