The Daily Alaska empire., 1938-12-21
PLANNED AVIATION FUTURE

Much is made of the progress in aviation and swthout doubt the strides it has made is unmatched Fin any other industry in the world. We notable sevidence of it Alaska in the last few years with sregularly scheduled routes established and more Frecenty connection with the States in the process sof development.
 But the march of aviation in the future will be seven greater if progress continues along planned slines Edward J. Noble, Chairman of the new Civil sAeronatftics Authority, discussing the ambition of sthe new authority recently made this statement in referring to developments of the past
 "The progress has been great and unquestionable : But is not enough" He then went on to point out some of the objectives of the future:
 The Civil Aeronautics Act lays down for methods tried by half century of utility regulation It adapts them to the special problems of this utility. ] Before any new airline fly the Authority must determine that it will public convenience sand necessity Its rates must be fair and reasonable Competition must not be unfair or destructive; but [ must be sufficient to insure sound development The capital setup of any carrier is of course sub iec the scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange : Commission. The Civil Aeronautcs Authority must judge its business transactions by standards of honest ard efficient management.
 -ss Tt has far wider powers over physical safety than ever before The Act sets up within the Author
 ny Air Safety Board with special powers to nvesti- gate accidents determine their causes, and make recommendations to prevent their recurrence
 Contributing to safety inherit all that the government has hitherto done That means not only the long accumulation of experience represented in the regulations for safety but much of the skilled personnel to interpret and apply the regulations for us We likewise inherit very extensive physical plant which the government has scattered throughout the United States as aids to air navigation These consist at the present time of than three radio stations of all sorts nearly an equal number of weather reporting stations than twenty thousand miles of teletypewriter circuits and than two thousand lights and beacons twenty-two thousand odd miles of lighted arways.
 "The airines will carry million and a half pas sengers this year About the same number will be carried in non-scheduled flying But that does not mean by long shot that three million individuals fly as passengers. Many of them repeaters The best estimate is that not more than half million people less than one-haf of percent of our popu- laton actually make of travel by air for any pur- pose whatsoever
 Tt is perfectly true that fear as well as fare keeps many of these people out of the air Those of us most closely familiar With the problems of flight believe that fear is very much exaggerated Thirty nine thousand persons killed in automobile acci- dents last and only thrty-six passengers were killed in scheduled air transportation.
 Tn the air there is a separate highway level every five hundred feet Down the middle of each airway, the radio beam sends marker as plain as the white line in the center of any surface highway furthermore wherever these airways traffic is handled as 1t is on the most modern highway-by a separation of grade. Pilots approaching these inter- sections must maintain their level if on one arway and must rise above il by five hundred feet if on another
 The results of this careful planning are already