The Wrangell sentinel., 1941-07-11
Traffic Cops
For Always !
Next Necessity

WASHINGTON, July Il - Some
folks here are perturbed about the
/ possibilities OF a traffic jam on the
highways of the air The other day
a delegation called on the President
and urged him 10 appoint an air
control coordinator' a sort OF traf-
] fic cop of the air. with broad pow
/ ers TO regulate traffic even 10 the
point. if necessary. of grounding pri-
yate flying in army and navy man
euyer areas.
Trying 10 get anything official on
the situation is like trying 10 pull
j teeth with eyebrow tweezers On
both sides of the fence, authorities
ARE afraid of touching eff a pow
/ der key There are more than 300.
/ 600 airplanes of all types in the.
country today. About 1900 OF these.
! are private and commercial planes.
/ There are tens OF thousands of pi-
/ lots Add a few million passengers
and you have some idea Of the per
sons affected by any regulation or.
curtaiIment OF private flying.
On the other hand, il was realized
that the army and navy must have.
some priorities in the skyways even
before the Civil Aeronautics Board
came out of lis huddIe recently and
established a ceiling OF seventeen
thousand feet above sea level for
all commercial and private aviation.
Above that the skies belong 10 the
army and navy. The board added the
further regulation that all planes
not equipped with tWO-way radios
and sensitive altimeters must stay
within $500 feet of the ground.
This caused a little easier breath
ing in those aeronautical circles
that feared the appointment OF a
traffic cop for the skyways would
wreck the private flying as we'll as
the civilian pilot training program
that vast reservoir out of which
the army and navy are drawing so
many OF their flying cadets. Wheth-
er it is a complete solution remains
TO be seen.
It doesn't eliminate one of the
armys chief grouches, namely that
secret air maneuYers are handicap
ped by civilian flying. A secret man
euYer cant very well be secret If
the army has 10 notify dozens of air
port dispatchers just what il plans
to do and when.
It is believed, however, that STRAIT
ification OF traffic on 30,00O-milel
skyway network will simplify natl
tiers not only for the flyers but forI
those men who keep the radio beams
0uzzing in the nations 100 range
stations.
How the whole thing started
isn't positive, but in recent weeks
lot OF stories have been drifting
/ into Washington about congestion
as a result of military aviation. One
| such was that of a kittinish army
pilot, tail man in a formation flight,
had decided to practice an Immel-
man turn on the tail of a cross
country airliner. Apparently, the fell
| low didn't come close, but it was
near enough TO scare the daylights
out of a few passengers. Another
report was that an army pilot, Civ
en- the all clear to land his high
/ speed fighter plane on a midwestern
port, hit the runway just as stu
dent flyer was taxing his little
+ plane across the field. The army pilot
/ had to spin his plane and rip off
/ a wing to avoid a collision. These
Z stories ware numerous and undOubt-
/ eddy gave rise to the fact. that
. something should be done.
/ ANY mention Of a traffic jam on
the highways of the air at this
point, however, is especially anus
/ ing in view of what Charles Stan
! ton. deputy administrator OF the CT
/ william Aeronauties Authority once
told me.
/ Our program and our plans here
are not just aimed at next week or
even next year. We are looking for
ward to the day when the United
\ States will have 100000 to 100000
airplanes. That's just about one
plane for every so autos, which Ger
tainly isn't too much to expect. On
= that basis, within a 25-mile radius
of New York City, there would be
$4,000 planes. And when that time
comes, We will be ready TO handle
the situation without any complica-
tions."
So these are just the horse and
= buoy days of aviation.