The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-16

' birthday August 12 when the five routes now giving regular service to l09 cities in triangular area roughly bounded by Wilmington, Del, Jamestown, N. Y, and Hunt ington, w, Va, will have been in service under government contract for just year.
 Operating method of the system is of course fairly familiar to every one. A plane swoops low over any designated pasture, and drops of it's sack of mall without landing. On the ground, two poles 20 feet high and 20 feet apart are stuck in sockets Their tips are connected by cable to which is attached the pouch of outgoing mail. By an in- genious simple hook, lowered through trap in the bottom of the fuselage, the pickup line is caught and the pouch drawn up to the plane by an electric winch. The transfer is made while the plane is going more than 100 miles an hour. Smudge pots help the pi- lot locate the poles when visibility is poor. Besides the pilot, each plane carries a crew of one to operate the winch.
 Pioneer in the development of the pickup service is Richard c. duPont of the Delaware du Fonts, whose All , American Aviation, Inc, holds con- tracts for the five Pennsylvania and West Virginia routes now operating. Young du Pont was glider enthu- siast who developed the equipment now in use and sold his idea to the government. ROUGH SAILING
 The combined mileage of the routes was little less than 1000 and the country flown over offers some of the toughest flying weather in the United States as it is largely the area of the Alleghenies which | in the old days of early commer- cial flying was called the graveyard or hells stretch. The experience of 1 these first two routes was so good | that when t ehcontract was renewed it was extended to five routes, with two flights 8 day, one in each di- rection. Some of the experiences of the operator have been noteworthy. During the particularly bad winter of 1940, there were days when l heavy snow grounded the big com- mercial liners, but the pickup | planes, not having to land, kept | right on with their mountain hop | ping. When flood hit the Ohio val- ley, it was sometimes necessary to ! go out in rowboats to erect the poles ! for pickup. Not single crackup or I casualty has been reported, though 1 the planes are single motored affairs | not licensed for commercial passen- ger carrying. Night flights have been conducted experimentally, with neon lights to mark the poles Par achutes were used to lower fragile pouches. Tn addition to the five routes which it now has in operation, All- American has on file with the Civil Aeronautic Board applications to ex- tend its service to 237 communities in states where it now operates and in New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. And nine other companies have filed with CAB proposals to extend the serv- ice into 26 other states. If they should all be put in operation, near 1 ly 14O0 of the smaller cities, not
 now on regular commercial airlines, would have the advantage of air contact through feeder lines that
 would tie them in with the nations
 air route network.
 MAY EXTEND
 STILL FARTHER
 i The overall picture on that net
 work now is that the passenger lines
 serve about 250 cities which are big enough to offer passenger revenues
 that make profitable operations.
 There are $500 other cities of more
 than 2500 population, to which the
 air transport system has been more or less meaningless because of the time it took to make ground con- | tact with the airports. Pickup air
 service is intended to bridge the gap.
 Representative Randolph, of El-
 Sins, w. Va, claims to be the father
 of the service in Congress and he
 is backing further expansion. His checks now show that the cost of the service runs about 40 cents a Inlile and that revenues and in-
 creased air mall business of from A to 93 per cent is reported from the
 cities now served, making the oper-
 ation profitable to the government.
 One pet dream of the Postofice
 Department is that some day, all first-class mail in the country will
 be handled by air.