Evening Star Newspaper, September 23, 1928, Page 62

AVIATION BY FREDERICK R. ALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sep- S tember 22.—Military aviation not only is far more hazard- ous than civil and commer- cial flying, but it is far more un- comfortable. With Lieut. John E. Upston of the office of the chief of Air Corps the writer flew for 7 hours and 10 minutes non-stop | from March Field, Riverside, Calif,, to this city in the Curtiss observa- tion plane from Bolling Field, known locally a§ the Thrush, which carried the two occupants of the ship from Washington to Los Angeles for the national air meet. On this trip the difference between civil and military flying and the difference between civil | and military planes was (-mnhu-I sized to the point where it was felt | from head to foot. On the long journey up the Mojave Desert and along side the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with nothing to do but look at barren | scenery and smoke cigarettes, the | writer had ample opportunity to compare the life of the military aviator with the commercial air- plane flyer. Sitting there in two open cock- pits, with the torrid sun beatirg down, the blast of the 400-horse- power Curtiss D-12 engine in our faces; the bumpy air, with the ship bouncing and pitching; with sand shipped at the dusty March Field swirling up in our faces, and at times with life dependent upon the whim of the single engine up in front, one came to the conclu- sion that if a new-born “aviation angel” were out for his first cross- country trip, with the object of investing money in flying imme- diately on landing, he would tele- phone his banker to invest his money in railroad and bus stock. But while the two lone souls in that desolate country were speed- ing along at 100 miles an hour (there was a stiff head wind), equal opportunity was afforded to visualize the commercial airplane traveler on his flight. To contrast the two, the Thrush, being inher- ently sensitive, didn't take the EELY. types, the passenger, with his in- dividual cigarette ash tray, in business clothes, protected from the glaring sun, the biting wash | from the propeller and the side| blasts of wind, reclines in an up- | holstered chair. The enormous wing area of the ship makes it possible to ride out the bumps with balloon-tire results. h Terrible country passes beneath his eyes, such as we encountered north of Las Vegas, Nev., on our military flight—country where a safe or partial safe landing is im- possible, resulting in the occu- pants taking to their chutes or trusting to luck to get away with injuries that will not hamper them for life. But this terrible country doesn't worry him. The commercial air transport passen- ger raises an eyebrow in amaze- ment at the frightfulness of the land and resumes his reading, confident that the three humming engines up front will continue to function, but if they do not, any two will sustain the ship for the remainder of the flight and any one will enable it to get .in gliding distance of an emergency field. The possibility of all three stop- ping at once is unthinkable. At the end of the trip the pas- senger emerges spick and span, rested, pleased and aware that he has seen some of the world—un- like the military plane occupants who land covered with soot from the exhaust stacks, with faces windburned, sunburned, blistered and cracked and with dust that had been shipped in the cockpits on the take-off ground into their skin and also very tired from sit- ting in their cramped positions. The military pilots always will be at the bottom of the ladder of comfort in flying. But, after all, this type of travel is flying of o sort that is noticeable. There is the romance of buckling a para- chute on, safety belt buckle, jab- bing the ears full of cotton, pull- ing the helmet down tight, adjust- ing the goggles over the eyes and away in a cloud of dust. The, public, however, would THE SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON. BUSINESS MEN USE PLANE LINES MOST Woman Passengers Are Much Rarer Than Males, Check- Up Shows. Mr. Average Airplane Passenger is a big-town resident, about seven-eighths masculine and one-eighth feminine, with a penchant for one-day flights and a pronounced preference for Reno, Nev.. according to the monthly traflic records of Boeing Air Transport, a transcon- {'lnentnl airmail, passenger and express ne. Of 181 passengers carried during July. only 23 were women, 19 of them married and 4 single. Business men, most of them flying as a matter of commercial routine, formed virtually all of the pas- senger list. Residents of the big cities take to the air in a ratio of 2 to 1, as compared with rural folk. Of all the flying coun- trymen the he-men of the sage plains around Elko, Carson City and Nevada are the Boeing company’s most frequent air travelers, Of all the possible short trips between various points on the route that between Oakland and Reno is by far the most popular. Of the 181 July passengers, 27 flew from San Francisco to Chicago and 79 made hops averaging 1,200 miles. Any Canadian citizen may be grant- ed a pilot’s license by the United States Government, regardless of whether or not h= holds a Canadian pilot's license, the Department of Commerce has de- cided. P EL D. €. SEPTEMBER G- ) =) 1928~ Four 20-passenger monoplanes, said to be the largest ever built in this goun- ments and sleeping berths for night fly- ing, have been under construction se- cretly at the factory of the Keystone Aircraft Corporation, Bristol, Pa., for the past two months, it has been learncd. | The planes are to be put into trancont!- | nental_service from New York to the West Coast Announcement of the building of the planes was made by Edgar N. Gott, president of the Keystone Corporation, who now Is in California attending the aeronautical exposition. The planes are of a type to be known as the “Patrician” and will be of all- metal construction, with three Wright Cyclone engines giving a total of 1 horsepower. The huge planes are pected to have a maximum speed of 155 miles per hour and a_cruising speed of 130 miles per hour. They will have a service ceiling of 16100 feet. The ships will have a wing spread of 90 feet and, when loaded with fuel for four and one-half hours' flight, 1,000 pounds of baggage, 18 P Ts and two pilots, the Patrician will weigh 15,000 pounds The main cabin is to be 6 feet by 19 feet 6 inches and will be 6 feet high. It will be fitted with 18 chairs arranged in six rows of three abreast, withi an aisle running lengthwise. By sacrificing a portion of the baggage and fuel space provision may be made for six addi- tional passengers, or 26 persons includ- ing the ¢ try, equipped with private compart-| FOUR GIANT PLANES BEING BUILT FOR TRANSNATION LINE The Patrician, according to Mr. Gott, | will represent the highest development in the aircraft designer's art in safety, comfort, beauty, speed and dependabil- ity. He explained that a private sleep- ing compartment, large enough for a standard sized berth has been built in the fore part of the cabin, with provi- sions for hot and cold running water and toilet facilities. In the main cabin dome and wall lights are provided and a set of glass panels gives the highest | possible range of visibility. A radio will be installed, with a loud | speaker in the roof of the cabin, which | may be utilized for receipt of ground | programs or for comments from the pilot as to location, scenic features be- low or contemplated maneuvers, A set of instruments, speclally constructed on an enlarged scale by the Pioneer Instru- of the cabin to give passengers continu- ous information as to altitude, air speed and time. The m on either side At the baggage and @ may be ir The K perlence airplancs, having produced a of the bombing planes now used Army Air Service. This experi be incorporated in the new ships, will be constructed of materials identi- cal with those furnished the Govern- ment and assembled in accordance with artment of Comme catio in cabin is entered from doore at the rear of the scats, e rear of the fuselage is the /. water supply A buffet t ment Co., will be mounted at the front | WARNS PHILADELPHIA TO IMPROVE FIELD Glover Says City May Lose Air Mail Service Unless Condi- tions Are Remedied. R S i | Unless better airport facilities are | provided at Philadelphia, that city wiii | be taken off the Atlantic coastal air mail line, the Post Office Department has warned the municipal authorities of the Pennsylvania city Warning of withdrawal of the air | mail service unless present unsatisfac- tory conditions are remedied was given | in a letter sent by Second Assistant | Postmaster General Glover to the post- master at Philadelphia. Mr. G plained in his letter the policy department not to extend air mail ser ice to any city which does not provide proper landing fields and equipmenc for use of the air mail service. The department has received repors | that one of the air mail pilots of Pit- \irn Aviation, Inc., which has the con- ct on the New York-Atlanta route. nearly killed the night of Septem- 7 on account of wet grounds at the Philadelphia_field. Because of the wet condition it be- came necessary to carry the south- bound mail out of Philadelphia by rail- road. Mr. Glover has informed the Philadelphia authorities that cinders or temporary dykes will not afford proper safeguards for the landing and taking off of airpianes. | | MEDICAL LETTERS SPEED| STUDENT PILOTS’ COURSE Authorization of Field Examiners| to Hasten Instruction of Avia- | tors Made by Department. } To prevent delays in the instruction of student pilots while awaiting the is- suance of a student’s license by the Department of Commerce, the depart- ment has authorized its medical ex- | aminers in the field to issue letters of | autiorization which may be used tem- porarily in lieu of a license. The law prohibits the flying of licensed aircraft by any person not holding a pilot’s license, and it is neces- ary that all students have a license issued by the Department of Commerce before any instruction may be received in licensed aircraft, whether such in- struction be dual or solo Under the n authorized procedure, | a student may fill out his application | for students’ permits as at present, and | he may submit it to the authorized | medical examiner in his district at the time he takes the medical examination instead of mailing it to Washington | and waiting for a license. If the ap- plicant is passed by the medical ex- aminer the examiner may issue a letter of authority to act as a student pilot pending the receipt of a license issued from Washington. | . The Secretary of War has authorized the attendance of Lieut. Faustino Lopez y Neyra of the Cuban army at the Air Corps Technical School, Chanute Field, 1ll, during the course in maintenance engineering, which will begin Octo- ber 15. Product of WILL TRY TO CIRCLE WORLD IN 15 DAYS Liert. G. R. Pond and Two Asso- ciates Plan Flight of 18,000 Miles. An attempt to circle the world in 1§ days will be made before the end of this month by Lieut. George R. Pond of the United States Naval Reserves and two associates, the Navy Department has been informed. Lieut. Pond an- nounced his plans in connection with a visit_to the Naval Reserve base at Long Beach, Calif, during the past week. Lieut. Pond expects to leave Detroit on his 18,000-mile flight as soon as his airplane, now under construction there, can be completed and tested. The route which he has selected tentatively is as follows: Detroit to St. Johns, Newfound4 land; the Azores, Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, London, Berlin, Moscow, across Russia and Siberia, over the Bering Strait io Nome and Fairbanks, Alaska: Edmon- ton_and Winnipeg, Canada, and back to Detroi Official Service DELCO—KLAXON—REMY Authorized by United Motors Service CREEL BROS. 1811-17 14th St. N.W. Potomac 473 (SION CTION [l never stand for this type of flying as a regular mode of transporta- tion. Certainly they would enjoy bumps like a lady at all. If Lieut. Upston turned the ship locse for donst a moment to dig out a new map, switch on to another tank or per- form any other type of maneuver that required letting go of ihe stick away the old girl would 8o, either in a dive, a steep climb or drop over on one wing almost to the vertical. Now and then she would hit a bump and both occupants would find the plane being jerked | from beneath them—just the re- verse of an automobile hitting a bump that sends the occupants to the top of the car. But the Thrush is a death- dealer, a war machine; a fighter, built not for comfort, but for ef- ficiency. Hence, no scorn can be cast in her direction. With a com- mercial liner, a big three-engine job, each engine developing 400 horsepower, like the new Boeing, the Keystone, the Fokker or the Ford, a different picture can be drawn for the flight from River- side to Salt Lake. Seated within the other. We covered 600 miles with a slow ship, against a head wind and over desert, mountainous country in 7 hours and 10 minutes. Not bad, neither is it particularly good, for this enlightened age of aeronautics. Our ship is designed to carry bombs, machine guns, machine gun bullets, cameras and radio sets, hence safety agds.com- fort must be sacrificed for war practice. . The big passenger transports are designed to carry passengers com- fortably, safely and speedily. Out here is where air transpor- tation is appreciated, more so than in the East with its flat country, its short distances be- tween major cities, its speedy trains and frequent schedules. Out here is where aviation’s future lies for passenger transportation. And out here the people are aware of that, are awakened and are pro- the luxurious cabins of these gressing far more than back East. LONDON POLICE TO PURSUE SWIFT CRIMINALS BY ANDRUE BERDING. Associated Press Staff Writer. ‘LONDON, September 22.—Internation- al air police to guard the upper regions against piracy, smuggling, murder and all forms of crime have been brought into existence by the sudden advent of the world's “airplane age.” 1 The Sherlock Holmeses of the Brit- ish empire may keep their noses for- ever on the ground, but they have learned to lift their eyes into the air, for the airplane has become the instru- ment of high-class crooks. Since an international forger es- caped recently from London to Brussels by boarding an airplane at Croydon after fleecing London banks out of a small fortune British detectives have learned that crimes involve not only two but three dimensions. ‘Will Hire Planes. Scotland Yard has not equipped it- | self with an airplane in consequence, the Associated Press was told, but ar- rangements have been made whereby if the occasion warrants London detec- tives can hire a plane for special service This was the second attempt made by criminals to use airplanes in Eni land. The first failed when the sus- pect was hauled out of the cockpit of a plane at Croydon just as he was about to wing his way to the continent and safety. The use of the airplane by the crook already mentioned saved him from capture, for by the time the police had been notified by the victimized panks and had collated a description of the criminal and broadcast it he had already arrived at his destination and was “at large.” It needs I be a clever air pas- senger who can smuggle goods through the customhouse at Croydon. —De- tectives have already made a heavy haul of jewel robbers, drug smugglers and confidence men by keeping a watchful finger on the valve through which the rapid flow of people from the contirent passes at the airport. Reinforce Armored Cars. The British empire is making con- siderable use of the airplane in crime detection work, particularly in its use of the plane in military policing. The royal air force outlying stations are more particularly flying military police stations. In Iraq, for instance, air- planes reinforce armored cars in keep- ing the desert tribes, the Wahabis and the Bedouins. in order. Airplanes form a considerable adjunct of the policing forces of India. Canada has perhaps made the best record of all the dominions in the use of planes for police purposes. Aircraft have patrolled the entire Western Coast from Alaska to Vancouver Island searching for fishing craft illegally b ' i H S { - | country ate being nogotiated through USE PLANES using the salmon fishery waters. In one fiscal year 24 sea-going .craft were caught by airplanes, which wirelessed Information of the ships’ whereabouts to_government patrol boats. In Vancouver harbor the Canadian governmeat has made a specialized use of airplanes for police work in pre- venting passengers of incoming steam- ships from dropping packages of nar- cotics and other valuable goods over- board to be picked up later by smug- glers' launches. Before airplanes were +employed to cruise over incoming pas- senger boats this practice was preva- lent: now it has practically died out. CANADA-U. S. PLANE REGULATIONS SOUGHT Present Rules Call for Licenses for Both Pilot and Craft on Crossing Border. New regulations governing the flying | of airplanes from this country into Can- | ada and their use while visiting in that | diplomatic channels. A formal agree- | ment is expected in the near future, ac- | cording to the aeronautics branch of the { Department of Commerce. | At present the regulations provide that both plane and pilot must be li- | censed and such licenses must be car- | ried. The airplane must carry aircraft, | engine and journey loghooks. Before | entering Canada notification must be | given_ the collector of customs nearest | the Canadian landing field at which it 115 expected to stop. The plane must | bear registration marks allotted it by |the Department of Commerce, such marks to be preceded by the letter “N.” No cameras may be carried and | American pilots and aircraft may not | engage in commercial aviation while in Canada. Passengers may be carried from this country to Canada and back, | but not between Canadian points. Be- | fore departure from Cenada the pilot { must report to the Canadian customs, and upon returning to the United States {must land as near as possible to a | United States customs port and report I his arrival there. If carrying passengers 1 the pilot is responsible for their report- ing to immigration authorities. Stamp Shows Tallest Beacon. Appearance of the new 5-cent air mail stamp has occasioned much com- ment among purchasers. The authorities say the design on the new stamp represents the highest air- Rosslyn, Va. BLYTHE GARAGE Lanham, Md. way beacon in the world. It is situatea on top of Sherman Hill, 30 miles wesi of Cheyenne, Wyo., on -the San Fran- cisco-to-Chicago route. The beacon is 10,000 feet above sca level. J. M. GUE Damascus, Md. «a Successful Six now winning Even Gi Sul A reater Success ’\\ J. L. JERMAN 3342 M St. N.W. WARNER BROS., Inc. 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