The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-07-31
SAYS GLIDER
FIGHT HERALDS
FLYING TRAINS
BY ANTHONY ID. DE LORENZO
UNITED Press Staff Correspondent

by ANTHONY ID. DE LORENZO
United Press Staff Correspondent
Detroit, July 81 CUP)-Doni't be
surprised if you see freight flying
in the air as well as moving along
railroad tracks after the war.
A revolutionary postwar era of
speedy and inexpensive transporta-
ton may spring from the recent
successful use of the glider as a
trans-oceanic freight carrier.
Giant cargo planes towing a
handful of elders loaded with doz-
ems of products, including food,
flowers and machines, probably will
criss-cross the country at speeds
which a few years ago transporta-
ton experts said were impossible.
Towing of freight-loaded glider
across the Atlantic Ocean early in
July fulflls the prediction made
repeatedly for more than a decade
by Col Edward E. Evans, Detroit
industrialist and father of gliding
in the United States
Freight Dropped Enroutc
The Atlantic crossing was no sur
prise to Evans. He said the flight
completed in % hours, merely
marks the forerunner of what We
may expect in the future on an even
larger scale The developments to
come, he added, should have "a
beneficial effect on the postwar
economy
Evans, who circumnayigated the
globe in 1926 to demonstrate the
practicability of the commercial
transport plane, long has visioned
the day Of flying freight trains
Winging across the country at
speeds of 100 to 200 miles an hour,
switching off, cargoes as they reach
their destination.
The tractor or tug airplane need
not stop when the train reaches q
community for which some of the
freight is earmarked," Evans ex-
planned. "All the glider pilot has to
do is cut himself loose from the
rest of the train, make his landing,
discharge his cargo ard reload
Some time later he can be picked
up again ny lllc LOW l)ldllS.
Those who estimate the cargo
carrying capacities of postwar air.
planes on the basis of present ships
are headed for a rude awakening,
according to Evans. Present planes
weighing $4,000 pounds and carry
ing 5000 pounds of pay-load, he
said, will be replaced by mammoth
cargo ships weighing $4,000 to $780,
900 pounds. or even more.
With the addition of trailer
planes and properly designed tow
planes, the industrialist added, OPP
Grating costs again can be lowered
to the point where air transporta-
ton may challenge the railroads
for the right to carry first-class
freight.
Can Garry More Pay-Load
ut is important to remember"
Evans explained, that gliders can
carry more pay-load than cargo
planes of the same size, since
gliderS are not encountered with
weight of engines, fuel, oil, gas
tanks engine mountings and heavy
structural units. This would per-
nit approximately 63 per cent Of a
elders weight to consist of pay
load. Obviously the same ratio
could not apply to a power plane
A 200,000-pound tow plane, for
example, would carry probably 40
per cent of its gross weight, or 3d.
900 pounds, in pay-load. With as
sisted take-off, Evans said, this
plane could tow glider or gliders
equal to its own weight The gliders,
however, would carry 10 per cent
minimum of pay-load.
Evans believes that with use of
gliders freight can be hauled by air
at "litlte more" than the cost of
present charges for first class
freight.
The future of towed gliders he
said, depends to a large degree
upon what use the Army can make
of the craft during the war. He
indicated the Atlantic crossing by
the toWed glider may be the fore
runner for even more spectacular
developments,