Evening star., 1937-09-19
By Alice Rogers Hager.
MAJESTIC monster roars down


\ mile straight ahead. From the
planes wide windows the heads of
40 men and women passengers peer
out and in its busy cockpit three more
are to be seen, those of two pilots and
navigation officer Steward and
stewardess a moment before have
taken the flight manifest from the
hands of the station dispatcher, and
his neat salute coupled with the "alrs
clear" from the radio tower have set
the tremendous wheels of the brilliant
giantess rolling. Now she gathers
speed, her tail comes up, her three
forward wheels leave the ground and
swiftly, powerfully she takes the air,
with the impetus of a new era in flying
written invisibly across her magnifi-
cent wings.
1t is literally new era and the
monstrous craft that will carry 40
passengers and a crew of five is no
figment of wild fancy 1t is being
built today in Santa Monica--this
writer saw it rising on its jiggs at
the factory a little over month ago.
but not out of Washington. Other
cities will have its super-service. its
speed, its strength, its luxury-but not
Washington. Washington, the Ma
tons Capital, acclaimed among the
most beautiful of the worlds cities
with its broad avenues, its parkland
vistas, its buildings that join hands
between ancient architectural glory
and Observation-Disclosures will still
be riding on yesterdays skyhorses! If
you want to go aloft in tomorrows
ships, you will have to 60 to New
York or Cleveland or Chicago to get
aboard
Why? Is it necessary to answer
that question after the headlines of
the past year? Every other major
capital in the world knows the i'm
portance OF aviation progress and
points with justifiable pride to its
airport as a model for its countrys
airways. But not Washington!
TN CHICAGO from October 13 to Is,
the American Municipal Associ-
alton is to hold a conference of its
member cities representatives on the
serious problem of the future of
their airports. Yes, other cities have
airport problems as we'll. Many of
them are also faced with the posi-
bility of being omitted from the map
of airway futures when it is limned.
But the very fact that they are calling
into conference with themselves the
aviation experts of the Nation shows
that they are not content merely to
sit and bicker AS rapidly as possible,
they are gathering their forces to seek
q solution. Washington, of course, will
be among those present.
To be absolutely honest this lusty
infant aviation industry Of ours has
outgrown almost all its swaddling
clothes. In spite of tremendous
primary airport investment-some
s54,198,6l4 by 38 cities alone, with
better than million and a half
dollars year added for upkeep, the
end is far from being in sight. Busi-
ness has reaped incalculable benefits
from air service, the acceleration to
banking alone running into a saving
of several millions in interest rates
annually. But much of the business
for which the cities pay the airport
bills is interstate in character, from
which they get only small direct
return. There are more than 1000
landing fields in the United States,
ATS listed as municipal, with some 200
used as terminals by our commercial
airlines. OF that number, according
to the Bureau of Air Commerce, only
between Is and 20 can qualify with
some notifications and improvements
Tor the rating of super terminal"
the new classification for ports having
more than so scheduled arrivals and
departures Of ships a day.
TT WILL be out of those super
terminals that the giant Boeings
and Douglases of 1888 will take their
way. Some Of their builders, men
like Maj. Jack Berry of Cleveland, Abe
Shushan of New Orleans and the air.
port board of Oakland, have had the
longtime vision to lay their founda-
tions wide and deep. Their ports are
not completely adequate but they are
far ahead Of the majority and they
are not resting on their laurels.
In each case these three ports have
notable achievements in their lack of
surrounding distractions and their
possession Of great size and modern
equipment. Cleveland has an 80-acre
landing mat of hard-surfaced as
phaltic concrete, of highway type con-
struction 8 inches deep. But it adds
to that an entire field surface that is
safe for landing in any weather, the
French system of drainage being used
with trenches every "a feet back filled
to the top with cinders and running
4-inch farm pipe which allows con-
slant seepage of moisture. w. P. A.
labor has been both successfully and
economically used in the work that
has been progressing here since the
end of 1885.
Oakland's port is so good that some
OF the most advanced experimental
radio testing and research being done
by airlines in their flying labora tories.
notably United's and T. w. AS auto
matte blind landing development. has
been carried out there through almost
its entire course.
New Orleans Shushan port. though
suffering from the exact opposite of
Washingfon's complaint, having an
almost perfect port and little trafic
has added beauty TO its terminal as
well as facilities for sea as well as land
planes.
Newark and Chicago, the two busiest
ports in the world today. are both
potentially in the super-terminal class
but each is struggling to overcome lack
OF sufficiently careful planning. Chi
cago, to gain size needed for lengthen-
Ing runways. is having to move rail-
road tracks at great expense. ano
Newark, in addition TO difficulty with
surfacing operations, has had to re-
move four large hangers and rebuilc
them in another portion of its fielc
because of original wrong placement