Evening star., 1937-09-19
NEW AIRCRAFT ERA ARRIVES
ForPassenger Planes Now Being Built Will Service All Major
Cities Except Washington Because Airport Facilities Here
Make 1t Impossible for Them to Land.

building to be done. Said F. E.
Grieme. assistant chief of the division,
when this writer talked with him
recently: I'VE know now that port
must be large enough to embrace an
area surrounding the immediate land
ing area of two miles at low altitude
and up to five miles at high altitude
at least for runway approaches.
Certain fields are important juno
tions in the civil airways system and
transports, while places of lesser i'm
portance will have to be provided with
hard-surfaced runways to permit con-
tinued operation of present equipment.
The financial aspect is a dificult one.
The present investment in airports
over the country is above 800 million
dollars. For safe operation aircraft
serving a city of 100000 population
require as much money as those serv-
ing one of a million and a half. The
land in the smaller city is less ex-
pensive, but the cost of installing
equipment is nearly identical All
ports won't have the largest craft
serving them, but all must have the
necessary safety factors for the type
of craft they need"
HIS financial bugaboo has become
so onerous to some municipalities
that for time many public officials
have said that they we're through.
But commercial progress and national
defense both demand that aviation
continue to develop. Whether it will
be slowed down materially will remain
to be seen. There are two possibilities
one is the challenge to scientific in
genuity in the construction of planes
that can get onto and off smaller
ports and still maintain advanced size
and speed, and the other is the greater
participation OF State and Federal
Governments in the financing of better
landing fields. The latter possibility
will be discussed at the Municipal
Association conference in Chicago.
One Of the probable points of ad-
vance, in the instance of the larger
cities, is the development OF more than
one port. The feeling is growing in
many quarters that separation of
classes of operations is becoming i'm
perative. Student flyers should not
be allowed on fields where transport
planes are coming and going, for. in
spite of the most careful radio control
of inbound and outbound schedule
traffic, an erratic beginner can tragi-
cally upset his own aerial apple cart
ss well as endanger passengers in the
big ships. Equally. Army and Navy
flying is best confined, except in special
circumstances, to fields reserved for
their highly specialized maneuvers.
Some cities are planning to solve this
situation by using their older ports
for service and school flight operations
and constructing new and modern
ports for airline operation.
THE airlines themselves have a
major problem facing them with
the delivery Of the big planes immi-
nent Their present organizations are
practically at the saturation point now
with the recently acquired DC3s, most
OF them 21-passenger ships. Equip
ment reorganization had to be gone
through to a considerable extent with
these, but with the 30 and 40 pa assenger
jobs ground crews will have to be
increased, flight personnel enlarged
to add a navigation officer to the
present pilot and co-pilot, and either
two stewardesses carried or a man
steward added to the regulation pretty
trained nurse hostess; and the traffic
personnel enlarged. Terminal Offices
must have more space-already they
ar crowded to capacity during rush
hours-restaurants must grow in size
and food sevice organizations for meals
aloft be stepped up to meet an almost
doubled traffic.
This is, at best. very sketchy out
line of a situation Of which little has
been heard locally. 1t constitutes a
new challenge and affords new
opportunity to the District. The
opportunity is inherent in the fact
that Washington, given initiative and
direction, can start from scratch with
the benefit of the accumulated ex-
perience of the rest of the country to
draw upon. 1t can build for beauty,
and for model size, safety and equip