Evening star., 1939-08-13

A national air transport industry rap
idly moving over to the black side OF
the ledger after years of operating at
loss, Inauguration Of transatlantic air
transport service, an increase of 80 per
cent in the production and sales of air.
craft and an increase of 80 per cent in
the number Of civil pilots holding Federal
certificates are evidences of a great re-
surgence of American civil aviation dur
ing the first year of the Civil Aero
nautics Authority, created a year ago
this month.
The year also has witnessed the incep-
ton of a national student pilot training
program which is expected by the end
Of 1941 to triple the number of Amer
ican airplane pilots, providing total of
10000 licensed flyers. Inauguration of
air transport service between the United
States and Alaska and between this
country and New Zealand, over one Of
the worlds most spectacular air routes,
down through the heart of the vast Pa
cific, is expected during the second year
of the Authoritys administration of civil
aviation affairs.
1t is in the field of economic regula-
ton Of American air transportation that
the Authority apparently has made its
greatest advances during its first year of
existence. The year has been marked
by traffic gains which have continued
month after month, regardless of ordi-
nary seasonal fluctuations. During the
past six months each succeeding month
has brought new all-time record traffic
total for passengers, mail or express
most months in all three classes of traffic.
Faced Threefold Task.
when the members of the Civil Aero
nautics Authority the administrator and
the Air Safety Board took the oath of
office year ago." Chairman Robert H.
Hinckley said in reviewing the first years
activities of the Authority, I'VE found
ourselves confronted by threefold task
which in all conscience seemed large to
us. We were charged by Congress and
the President with the new duty of eco
nomic regulation as applied to civil aero
nautics. Under the same charge we in
herited the duty of providing, maintain
ing and extending and improving the aids
to navigation of the common air. We
were charged, and in very particular
way this bore upon our conscience, with
the duty of increasing the safety, and
therefore the utility, of all flying"
Activities in all phases of aviation have
increased enormously beyond anything
we could have reasonably contemplated
when We began our task" Mr. Hinckley
said in reviewing accomplishments of the
year. ....
To illustrate the extent of the growth
which has taken place, few figures are
necessary. During June the scheduled
air lines carried 164578 passengers-an
increase of 81 per cent as compared with
the same month last year. During the
first six months of 1889 total of 1927
airplanes were produced for domestic
civil use in the United States Only about
40 of these went to the scheduled air.
lines, the rest being purchased and used
by private and non-scheduled flyers.
This is regarded as an unusually healthy
situation in view of the general belief
that it is the private owner-pilots who
will make civil aviation, just as it has
been the private owners who have made
the automotive industry rather than the
taxicab or bus operators. Compared with
the first six months of 1888, when $50
civil a1rplanes were made and sold for
domestic use, Mr.. Hinckley pointed out,
this is an increase of more than 80 per
cent in production and sales.
The close of the first year of admins
tratlon OF civil aeronautics by the c. A. A.
found 26,l44 pilots holding certificates.
This is 5000 more than a-year ago or an
increase of about 80 per cent.
There are now 11,160 airplanes for
which Federal certificates have been
issued-l 400 more than a year ago. or
an increase of almost Is per cent This
gain will be increased "startlingly" if the
production figures of the first six months
of this year are maintained throughout
the year, it was predicted.
Plane Demand to Rise.
THE increase in pilots, according to
every indication of our charts, will be
even more startling" Mr. Hinckley said.
Even without the Authoritys own pilot
training program, the curves show that
there would be $4,000 certificated pilots
by the end of 1910, and $4,000 by the end
of l941. Taking into account the STU
dent pilot training program, however,
the number of pilot certificates in force
by the end of 1941 ought to approximate
10000 of all classes. 1t is easy to fore
cast what this tripling of the number of
flyers in three years will mean in demand
for increased airport facilities, increased
manufacturing capacity. and increased
use of the Federal airways and of the
aids to navigation"
The Federal airways within the con-
tinental United States have been in
creased in length by about 10 per cent
and now total more than Is 900 miles or
more than the distance around the earth
at the equator. Aids to navigation along
the airways have increased in about the
same proportion.
But this is not as good a measure of
their increased usefulness as is the most
complete modernization of existing radio
and other aids and the plans now under
development for their possible CONVEX
sion into the new ultra-high frequency
category, where they will become even
more useful and reliable"
Chairman Hinckley expressed the opin-
ion that perhaps no occurrence during
the year has been of more importance
to the United States than the extension