The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-08-16
DREAM OF AIR BRIDGE TO ASIA
 COMING TRUE
BY G. IT. WARING United Press Staff Correspondcnt)


 Edmonton, Alta, Aug. 16.-(UP)- A decade ago young Western Call- adian bush pilot had a dream-a dream of an air bridge to Asia.
 Today Grant McConachies dream awaits only the wars end to make it an actuality.
 McConachie started building the Canadian end of that bridge in 1894. At the outbreak of war he and his far-sighted associates in the bush-flying business had been running a daily air schedule as far north as Whitehorse, Y. T., for two years.
 The war gave immense impor- tance to the half-completed Mo- Conachie air bridge. Particularly after the opening of hostilities in the Pacific, the need to rush planes, men and supplies to Northwestern Canada and Alaska made the air route up the inside of the Canadian Rockies one of the worlds busiest
 Military and cargo aircraft now pour into Edmonton by the thou sands from the South and East, and head out North in a never-ending stream. Many of the bomhers and fighters, both Canadia nand Ameri- can, participated in the work of blasting the Japs out of Attu.
 For this fog-free round route to Alaska, Allied strategists owe thanks to McConachie and the men who flew that country with him.
 The young six-foot-plus bush pi- lot headed the nose of his twin enginer Fokker north in 1894 to begin what was to be two years of survey flights through tn vast British Columbian and Northwes- tern Albertan wilderness, searching for suitable year-round route to Whitehorse.
 He charted and then abandoned two routes through British Colum- bia before he built his air bridge east of the Rockies thorugh AL berta and Northeastern British Co., lumbia.
 Coast Route Too Foggy
 Routes nNrer the coast proved impractical because of fog and other adverse flying conditions. McConachie instead established his line from Edmonton northwest to Grande Prairie, Alta, then on the Dawson Creek, B. C., and thence north and northwest to Fort St. John, Fort Nelson, Watson Lake and Whitehorse.
 McConchie's Yukon Southern Air Transportat, Ltd, flew that route until the company was ab- sorbed by Canadian Pacific Airlincs last year.
 Yukon Southern proved the route could be used both winter and summer, and in so doing pointed the way to the building of the Alaska military highway, which roughly follows the air route and services the chain of airfieldS that the Dominion Department of Transport is building to improve McConachie's bridge.
 Yukon Southern used planes equipped with floats for landing on water during the first few years of It's operation, but then, to increase the planes payloads, 1t removed the floats from many of its craft and substituted wheels. These, how ever, necessitated landing fields. Existing facilities were utilized at Edmonton and Grande Prairie, and the company Established it's own landing strips in Northern British Columbia.
 When the government stepped in to complete the air rout north as a war measure, McConachie was using land planes up to Fort Nelson and scaplanes for the remaining two hops - to Watson Lake and WhitehorSe.
 With faith in the practicability of air transpoIr in the North, Mc- Conachie fought an uphill battle against great climatic odds, shoe string finances and competition from independent bush pilots. The fledgling company carried men, equipment and supplies in; brought out men. furs and precious metals.
 The present chain of large mod ern airfields through Alberta and British Columbia to Alaska, form ing vital link In the chain of Pa cific defenses, is climax to the work of McConachie and his men.
 The main route-from Edmon- ton to Fairbanks, Alaska - has an airport every 250 miles, and now under construction are emergenT landing fields at 100-mile intervals between the airports. Planes travel by radio beam, far cry from the seat pants flying of the men who pioneered the route.