Evening Star Newspaper, May 5, 1929, Page 64

AVIA BY JOSEPH EGINNING tomorrow four ) airmail planes will take off from Bolling Field, each 24 hours carrying mail to the North and South. Today the first Sunday airmail service to and from this city will begin. Both expansions are tribute to the vastly increased use of the airmail by the American people and to the demand for greater . use of the airplane to speed up the communications which affect . the daily life of the Nation. May is a great month in local *’airmail history, the first airmail "1, 1928. service in the United States be- A tween this city and New York|meteoric. having been inaugurated 11 years| ago this month and the present New York-Atlanta line having| been opened on the night of May | The increases in service which are to become effective today « tomorrow should serve to dispel | any element of doubt which may | one re-| | Polo TION S. EDGERTON. | line, passingg through this city, the monthly poundage of airmail | has increased more than 200 per |cent in less than a year. The in- |crease throughout ~the country |has averaged more than 10 per |cent a month for several years. | There is no indication that this {rate of increase will flag in the |near future. In fact there are | prominent _postal officials who | predict Publlcly that within a few | years all | United States will travel by air. Airmail Growth Meteoric. Growth of the airmail has been Shortly before noon on May 15, 1918, four young Army officers stood at attention beside four Army De Haviland observa- tion planes; one of them on the ield in East Potomac Park, two in Philadelphia and ore in and | New York. At noon the pilots in | this city and New York climbed | into their planes, received small| pouches of mail, and took off. The | first-class mail in the; THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, OF FIRST SEA HOP | Mtlantic Flight of NC-4 Hail- | ed as Outstanding Air Triumph. By the Associated Prese. 1 The tenth anniversary of the first| transatlantic flight, achieved by the ! | NC-4 in May, 1919, will pass into avia-| tion history without any spectacular | demonstration from an air-minded | world to mark it. Aviation historians, however, recog- | nize it as one of the outstanding tri- umphs of aeronautics, surpassing in jm- | portance many other flights which re- | ceived more general public recognition. | "No official observance of the history- making venture is planned by the Navy or by the aviators, now scattered, who | made the flight. | " The hull of the first successful trans- | atlantic plane rests in a remote corner lof the Smithsonian Institution. The wings of the great ship are stored away in an obscure section of the naval air- | craft factory at Philadelphia. | Movement Is Failure. D. C, MAY 5, 1929—PART 4. DECADE VEILS FEAT | [__men xears eass sos smmst smeavmc nor ] AIR EXPRESS LINES COVERHALF OF U.3. |Service to Other 24 States Not Directly Included Speeded Materially. Alr express matter now may be sent over established air lines to 24 of the 48 States, or its delivery to any of the States not directly included on the present air lines may be materially expedited, according to a consolidated air express time-table which has just been issued. Afr transport is being used regularly today as a means of speeding the move- ment of express shipments in combina- tion with the existing railway express service. Alr express service is operated only on designated aerial routes, with air ports at specified points. According to the time-table, air ex- press service is offered between Boston, Hartford, New York and Los Angeles and San Francisco, making possible |late next-afternoon delivery from New York to Pacific Coast points. From the transcontinental line feeder lines AVIATION SHOWS GAIN. Interest in Baltimore Stimulated by Proposal to Erect Plants. BALTIMORE, May 4.—Local interest in aviation stocks and in airplane pro- duction has been stimulated by the de- cision of varlous eompanies to erect | plants in Baltimore. |, It is believed that the concerns which have already located here will form a g:rlieus t:}:gg will attract other com- nies city. The possibility of Baltimore becoming a center é(“‘h‘- plane manufacture is excellent, accord- ing to city officials, in view of the fact | that the industry is still in its infancy. 11 CENTS PER MILE COST OF AIR TRAVEL Survey of Transport Lines Reveals Average Charge for Trans- portation of Passengers. *The average charge for passenger air travel over the regular air transport lines in the United States is 11 cents | per mile, according to a survey recently | completed by the traffic department of | Boeing Air Transport, operators on the Pacific Coast and transcontinental air- mail and passenger routes. * linger in the mind of any S tethan | At mtetoiabEal TR i | mpts to obtain a su 1 the estahlishment s are extended to Pittsburgh. Detroit, | of |world’s first airmail It is possible for an aerial passenger ;. garding . regular day and night services .- went 2 nin . the service have had their finest e the early mail pilots who died in aerial transportation as a perma- nent factor in our present civili- is about to go into effect on the local route is only part of a sim- ilar expansion affecting service in every part of the country. Last| Wednesday the number of mail| planes flying daily over the trans- continental line from New York to San Francisco was doubled as | into effect all along the line.,’ The past 11 years have been years | of struggle, discouragement and | uncertainty for pilots and execu- | tives who have built up the mail plane lines. They are only begin- to realize today the security of the foundations they have laid. Feeling of Early Flyers. The feeling of the early airmail people that their efforts were misunderstood and their implicit faith in the ultimate success of expression in the words of one of line of duty. In a letter which he wrote shortly before he was killed in a crash and which he requested be delivered to his mother in event of his death, Brooke Pearson, better known to his fellow pilots | as “Jap,” said: “I trust your eyes may never see this but should God desire that you do, you at least know He has called me like many more who have given their lives for the future of this wonderful game. I was possibly wrong in not giving it up; bly I might have thought the same, but I choose to keep at it and pray that some- thing of use has been learned. “The world in general calls us silly fools, but it’s the silly fools who make the sacrifices that help to perfect any great thing that the world in general benefits by later.” Pearson died and many of his fellows died. Their deaths re- sulted in better planes, better landing fields and more of them, better flying instruments and in the throwing of more and more safeguards around the pilots who fly the mail. The results have been apparent in a_decade of growth never equaled in trans- portation history. New Levels Reached Constinfly. : Today airplanes are flying more than 40,000 miles every 24 hours cnxryla% the mail. Increased schedules and additional routes are bringing this figure up to new levels constantly. And, at that, the demands for new service are increasing more rapidly than operations of the airmail lines can be extended. Only this week a delegation of rominent St. Louis business men ew to this city to appeal person- ally to the Post Office Department for direct airmail service between St. Louis and New York by way of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Ap- blication has been f)ending for some time for airmail service be- tween Washington and Pittsburgh. Many other applications for new lines or extensions of old lines in gll parts of the country are on le. Public use of the airmail has increased beyond all expectation. |been inaugurated. Lieut. George Boyle, flying out of the Polo Field, Philadelphia transferred his mail at Philadelphia to the waiting plane iloted by Lieut. James C. Edger- on, a brother of the writer, who landed at the Polo Field here on schedule, completing the first reg- ular airmail flight in history. The Army continued flying the mail, with fair success, until August, 1918, when the airmail service was transferred from the War Department to the Post Office Department and the first transcontinental line was estab- lished, the Washington-New York line being abandoned. one of the soundest incentives to commercial aeronautical develop- ment the Government could have devised. Airmail development from that day on has been rapid and continuous. The National Capital again took its place on the country’s airmail map a year ago. At 9:30 p.m., on_ May ‘1, 1928 Pilot Amberse M. Banks brought his fast little Pitcairn Mailwing plane down out of the darkness and, dis- regarding flocd lights at the south end of Bolling Field, landed by the light of his wing-tip landing lights in front of a group of postal and military officials and Wash- sentatives. He carried several sacks of mail from New York and PhfladelPhia and at Bolling Field he received from the hands of former Postmaster General Harry S. New three additional pouches of mail for the South. At 2:35 a.m. the northbound plane, carry- ing 194 pounds of mail, s(,op;t)ed here for a few minutes on the way to Philadelphia and New York. Backing of Public Grows. Since then, in the fagce of flying conditions worse, with perhaps one exception, than on any air- mail route in the country, the Pitcairn pilots have been plugfig away steadily, with the organiza- tion and the backing of the public growing up behind them. Today there are seven pilots on the New York-Atlanta line. The Pitcairn line has en extended from Atlanta to Miami and subsequent- ly to Daytona Beach, Orlando and Tampa, Fla. Passenger service is to follow the airmail and it is expected that the first unit of the passenger line, from Greensboro, N. C., to Atlanta, will be inaugurated this Summer with tri-motored Ford monoplanes. This service will be extended up and down the coast as facilities are provided at the various cities en route. The passenger line eventually will be in operation from New York to Miami and, like the air- mail line, will make connect™ns at New York with air transport lines to the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Coast and at Miami with lines to all of the West In- dian island nations and to Central and South America, so that within another year it should be possible for a Washingtonian to board a passenger plane in this city and On the New York - Atlanta World. NEW DEVICE WARNS FLYERS, BLINDED BY FOG, OF THEIR PERIL By the Associated Press. DETROIT.—A simple device to warn pilots wheri they fly too close to the | ground—colored lights flashing on the plane’s instrument board—has been de- veloped to aid flying at night and in blinding fog. The dévice, a refinement of the radio.| cho altimeter, proved its capabilities ‘o skeptical aeronautical engineers in a test flight made from the Ford air- port with a tri-motored plane. It was shown to the public for the first time at the All-American Alrcraft Show. A green light on the plane’s instru- ment board flashes a warning to the, pilot when he is 250 feet above. any obstacle which may threaten a collision. Final Warning Given. At exactly 100 feet a yellow tht] flashes a second message to the fiyer. Then, as a final warning, a red light tells him that he is only 50 fect above the hazard, whether it is a mountain, tree, building or other obstacle. ‘While flying over mountainous altitude above the ground at all times. He could avoid unexpected hazards not regsitered on the conventional baromet- ric altimeter, which gives only the plane’s height above sea level. In landing the device is designed to provide the fog-blinded fiyer with the information he lacks and needs most today. He can land with precise knowl- edge of his altitude at all times as he heads into a field to which he has been directed by radio beacon, and watches his descent with the green, yellow and ¥ed warning lights. Computation of Time. Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, consult- ing engineer of the General Electric Co., who perfected the device, has harnessed the signal plane’s instrument board to the radio echo altimeter, which he first an- nounced last year. The time interval for a radio im- pulse to travel from a speeding plane 1o the ground and back to the plane is measured by Dr. Alexanderson’s de- vice and computed on a meter which coun- | try the pilot is informed of his exact | lights on the | cate sititudes below 250 feet the lights on the instrument board flash to at- tract the pilot's attention. Dr. Alexanderson at first tried to work out & system by which the pilot would be warned of his proximity to the ground by the intensity of the radio echo, but found that conflicting noises and the pilot’s range of judgment made it unsatisfactory. The warning lights promise to re- move this objection, but other methods also will be tested by Dr. Alexanderson before the device is placed on the market. . MODEL AIRPLANE CLUBS PLANNED FOR CITY BOYS Organization of Ten in Providence, R. I, First Step of Junior | Achievement Foundation. PROVIDENCE, R. I (#).—The or- ganization of at least 10 model airplane !clubs under the Providence Junior | Achievement Foundation is the first |step in its 1929 aviation program. | Leaders for these classes are being trained by Sampel Presel, Providence designer and model airplane expert, for future work in ‘training boys inter- ested in flying. 3 The plane designed for instruction is of the 15-inch tractor type and has been flown both outdoors and indoors. The best outdoor record obtained was a flight of two and one-half minutes, which stands as the longest flight vet made by any model plane flying out- of-doors in Rhode Island. ) — - Customhouse Displays Beacons. The United States Building at Boston is to be equipped with two rotating beacons using red cover glasses. The beacons will rotate at two revolutions per minute, and will be of 200,000 candlepower voltage. The apex of the tower will be illuminated shows the plane's exact height above the ground. ‘When the meter hand swipgs to indi- with four red obstruction lights, one on each side. The lights will be of 60 . candlepower, o ey \Webbs who' left and. | England, by way of the Asores, on one | York, 3 Later came the contract airmail | system, now in effect. This proved | ington civic and business repre- | fly to almost any part of the New | Customhouse | | building in which the famous but now | | almost forgotten plane might spread her | wings in full glory failed years ago. The ship which carried six men in safety from New York to Plymouth, {of the best planned flights in history, | awalts a better day in which to claim | | her just reward. Her gallant crew and the men who designed and built her continue to work out the problems of naval aviation, ex- cept for one or two who have dropped from the ranks. Comdr. Albert C. Read, commanding | officer of the NC-4—the only one of the | three planes which completed the trans- atlantic flight—has been named execu- toga. the giant “floating nest” for the Navy's planes at sea. Comdr. John H. Towers, who com- manded the flight and was navigator of the NC-3, which was forced out of the race at the Azores, becomes assist- ant chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics through a recent appointment. Enters Civil Aviation. Capt. H. C. Richardsun, credited with | the design of the NC planes’ hulls and pilot of the NC-3, leaves the Navy this month to enter civil aviation ds an ex- pert designer. His ideas dominated the design of a long line of Navy flying boats which recognize no superior. Lieut. Walter K. Hinton, who, with Lieut. Elmer F. Stone, piloted the suc- cessful NC-4, is head of an aviation correspondence school here. Lieut. Stone is stationed at the Wilmington, N. C., Coast Guard station. Ensign Herbert C. Rodd, the radio operator who kept in communication with other planes in the trio and with ships at sea during the flight, is in the Navy's Bureau of Engineering in Wash- ington. Lieut. J. G. Breese, the pilot engineer, left the Navy to become head of a Chicago engineering corporation, while his assistant, E. S. Rhoads, chief machinist’s mate, is stationed at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla. The three NC planes, built not for & conscious attempt to be first to span the Atlantic, but as an answer to the World tive officer of the aircraft carrier Sara-|_ ‘War submarine menace, are bigger than any planes now flying in the United States. They had a wing span of 126 feet, demonstrated their ability to carry 51 men on a single flight—still a record— and carried six men on their historic fiight to Europe. No plane since the NC-4 has carried six men on a trans- atlantic flight. Company Shipless With Its 2 Ancient Craft Both Wrecks TC-5 and TC-10, Often Seen Over Capital, Gone and Company Stranded. The 19th Alrship Company, at Lang- ley Field, Va.,, has no airships. Due to the failure of Congress to make sufficient appropriations to add new airship and balloon equipment, the company several years ago found itself reduced to two ancient airships—the TC-5 and the TC-10—both of which have been frequent visitors to this city. The two TC's were last seen here together on March 4, when they took: part in the Inauguration day aerial parade and were caught in the heavy storm that night. The TC-10 was s0 wrenched and weakened by the batter- ing it received that a few days later it went “haywire” and sank in Chesa- peake Bay near its home field. The TC-5 to its reward re- N. J., while on a cently at i.lkehurst. The blimp was photographic mission. caught in a storm at the Edgewood Arsenal, Md., and after receiving a lot of punishment from the wind was flown to the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst. At Lakehurst, however, the storm was raging, and it was impossible to move the ship into the big airship hangar there. The blimp was taken up to ride out the storm, and after nearly four hours was brought down and another effort was made to get it into the hangar. A sudden gust of wind eddying around the huge hangar doors tore the craft from the hands of the ground crew and it was hurled into trees a mile away on the border of the fleld. Capt. L. F. Stone, the Bblimp's com- mander, received a fractured elbow; Capt. R. S. McCullough's back was wrenched, and one member of the ;firuund crew was slightly injured. The limp was wrecked beyond hope of repair. And that's why the 19th Airship Company has no airships. {NEWSPAPER IN CHICAGO WILL USE FOUR PLANES To Deliver Papers, Carry Reporters and Photographers and Aid in Promotion Activities. CHICAGO (#)—Convinced of the value of airplanes to a newspaper, the Chicago Daily News this Summer will have four airplanes in operation. In addition to delivering papers to vacationists in the upper reaches of the Great Lakes States,%he planes will car- Yy reporters and photographers on stories, will transport executives to en- gagements and will convoy news reel photographers to important news spots. Thefi' also will be used in promotion work. Shirley J. Short, winner of the Har- nhor:k aviation trophy in 1926, is chief pilof Boeing Airport Being Improved. Boeing Field, the Seattle, Wash., mu- nicipal airport, rapidly is being im- proved. The first permanent hangar, a brick and steel unit measuring 200 {fcet by 100 feet, has been completed. Another one of the same proportions is to be built immediately. The tem- porary runways are being kept in con- dftion until the permanent ones are ready for use. Night lighting equip- ment, including beacon, boundary lights and flood lights for Janding, has .been installed. Ten years ago this month United States Navy flyers made the first transatlantic flight in the NC-4, whose historic | hull (below) rests in the Smithsonian Institution. Harbor (above). commanded the flight. The huge plans received a tremendous ovation when it reached Lisbos Comdr. Albert C. Read (in the oval) was the skipper of the NC-4. Comdr. John H. ane:! (H;hl')‘] BEACON FOR POLICE. NEGOTIATES FOR LAND. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (#).—A red flash Elko, Nev., Seeks Site on Which in the sky will be the signal for Jeffer- son County police to report to head- quarters. Through co-operation of officials of Bowman Fleld, Louisville's airport, Capt. Ambrose Hagerman, head of the | county police, will test an improvised | °hase has been made. when emergencies arise, which would place active operation of The big aerial beacon at the field will | the airport in the hands of the air be used, its white beam changed to red. ! transport company. Flying Field Is Situated. Elko, Nev., is negotiating for the pur- chase of the land upon which its air- port is situated. Improvements are scheduled to start as soon as the pur- A NEW CAR FOR ALL Never before such AIR BEACON 141 FEET HIGH By the Associated Press. A new airways beacon, visible for 50 miles, has been installed at the Prague, | Czechoslovakia, airport, the Depart- ment of Commerce has been advised by its consul at Prague. The new beacon, 141 feet high, is of 2,750,000 candlepower, and is the main unit of complete night flying equipment installed. The seven-storied structure was erected at a cost of $25,000. No night flying has been attempted yet at Prague. ... Decause never before such a (Car The public buys a car for three pri- mary reasons: (1) Eye appeal (2) Per- formance appeal (3) Value appeal. ‘They might buy for any one of these reasons individually, but when all three reasons are found in one single car, nothing can stop the avalanche of that car’s success. This three-way appeal, the public has decided, is in the Roosevelt. Asa result its success is everywhere—un- questionably the biggest automobile ten-strike of recent times. have been obtained In Performance Appeal Satisfactory performance ina $1000 car could undoubtedly with a six cylinder motor. But to be merely satisfactory is short of the Marmon ideal. So into a $1000 sutomobile Marmon put a straight-eight motor! And not a mere average motor of eight cylinders—buta gen- uine Marmon-designed, Marmon-built straight-eight motor. This motor de- performance thatis not onlyadvanced but of assured dependability and a Louisville, K.; St. Louis, Minneapolis and St. Paul; Lincoln, Nebr.; Fort Worth and Dallas, Tex.; Pueblo, Colo., and Seattle, Wash. General express trafic of almost every kind is now handled by air. Shipments up to $5,000 in value are | accepted and single pleces weighing not more than 200 pounds also may be sent by air. Afr express {5 not used for live shipments of any kind, nor for ex- plosives or highly inflammable matter, except motion picture films, or for ex- tremely fragile articles. The time-table includes tables of rates to all parts of the United States fz:; shipment entirely or part way by air. MONOPLANE IN NEW FIELD. | American tri-motored all-metal mono- planes probably will make their debut in Africa soon as the standard pas- senger planes on a new line now being planned between Cape Town and Johannesburg, the Department of Com- merce has been notified. The matter is being considered by the Civil Air Board, through which the government is of- fering a subsidy of $40,000 a year for a weekly mail servieo, Another South African aviation group is planning a service between the same | points also using American planes. They to travel 12,914 miles in this country | over the lines of air transport compa- |'nies operating regular passenger serv- | ices without retracing & mile of the journey. For nearly 13,000 miles of | travel the passenger would pay $1,427, lor 11 cents per mile. ‘The lowest aerial passenger fare per | mile in_this country is 7.6 cents, be- | tween Portland and Seattle, and the maximum 21 cents per mile for a short over-the-ocean flight along the Pacific Coast. The airplane rates include taxi- cab or bus transportation between the | alrports and the business sections of * | the cities they serve. [STUDEBAKER R. McREYNOLDS & SON 1423-25-27 L St. N.W. Decatur 686 NEW CARS USED CARS have applied for a government subsidy. | TO CORRECT A RUMOR - It’s ramored that Roosevelt delivery cannot possibly be made for several weeks. While sales are nearly double our best mfijflfiom, the hasassured usof largeimmedi~ ate shipments. We therefore . can now promise delivery in reasonable time. MARMON-BUILT Crowds thermostatic cooling; adjustable steer- ing column; “single button® control; In Eye Appeal If you didn’t know the Roosevelt price you might easily appraise it as a $1500 car— so smart and distinguished is its appearance. The Roosevelt has low sweeping lines. Itis asneatand trimasa yacht— either“head on” orside view. The radiator reflects the staunchness of the great name which it bears. THE WORLD'S STRAIGHT EIGHT UNDER $1000 velops an actual 70 H. P.—more power, by far, than any other car at or near the price. For smoothness match it with anything. You have been promised revelations of performance before. 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