Evening Star Newspaper, January 19, 1930, Page 94

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. .C, JANUARY .19, 1930. Cabinet Members, Members of the House and Senate and High Ranking Officers of the Army and Navy Are Included Among the Many-Officials in the Nation’s Capital Who Make Regular Airplane Flights and Prefcr This Form of to Any Other: ' BY MARGARET B. DOWNING. 7 ONGRESS has been discussing avia- tion so persistently for the past year that the subject is as familiar as farm relief and the tariff. An as- tonishingly large group of Washing- Wonians is air-minded and those who cannot fcommand governmental planes at will, await with undisguised impatience for the legislators on the Hill to cease investigating sites for a worthy airport but to select one and get it Yeady for use. Most assuredly Senator Hiram Bingham of Connecticut is one of these and Senator Arthur Capper of Kansas is another. ¥ part of their abiding interest in all that goncerns the development and progress of the (Capita) is their conviction that given an airport hich will be for it what Le Bourget is for is, or Croydon for London, Washington is redestined to become the most important civil- n aviation center of the Western world. Both Senators had no small part in persuading Presi- dent Hoover of this and enlisting his cordial gupport in the matter of a flying field of ade- qQuate capacity and the most extensive and Sest equipped airdromes. tSelu(‘m' Bingham is the supreme authority ®f aviation now in the National Legislature and its only member who is the author of a book on the theme, “An Explorer in the Air Serv- dce,” the record of 12 years of flying and of his experiences as commander of the Aviation $chool of the A. E. F. at Issoudon, France. ‘Consistently he flies when he wishes to travel d most unwillingly accepts any other means “of transportation. ! Senator Capper has absorbing business in- Rerests which require unexpected trips to To- peka and being a practical person he has se- ‘cured the best time-saver at hand. He is Thospitably treated by army and naval pilots @and occasionally he goes by mail carrier, and @gain he will secure a plane on his own account @and make the hop to and from Topeka in the third of the time required by train. But given a proper airport and the usual facilities for keeping a plane, the Kansas would pur- chase his ship, take out a pilot’s license and Imake his owft schedules. Frederick Trubee Davison, Assistant Secretary ©f War for Aeronautics, has been addicted to fiying for so long that his children take this Way of getting about as easily as other young- isters do a motor car trip. H2 goes by air on Bl his inspection tours and has the cockpit ‘'or cabin fitted with desk and files and he works as contentedly as in the War Depart- fment. Frequently to relieve the monotony of a iprolonged tour of unbroken flight he takes his gxm at the controls. William P, MacCracken, Who still resides in Washington although he is 0 longer in command of commercial aeronau= ics, proves his abiding confidence in a plane y never traveling any but the most insignifi- t distances save in the air, A knight of ether who has a romantic background is r. MacCracken’s successor, Maj. Clarence M. oung, who was an ace in the A, E. F. air rvice on the Italian front in 1917. His ship T'ransportation was struck by anti-craft and he spent some painful months in a German prison.' But Maj. Young had both military and commercial ex- perience before that disconcerting episode and he holds transport license number 2, showing that he was an earily bird in every sense of the word when the President and Secretary of Commerce began to sponsor the civilian side of aeronautics. David S. Ingalls, who handles the naval activities in the air, is another World War ace and got his baptism of fire on the Western front from 1917-18. As a result he may wear the Distinguished Service Medal be- stowed by his own Government and the British Flying Cross. He left the military flying con- tingent with a lieutenant’s commission and he has kept on the wing in civilian avocations. A lawyer of Cleveland, he had his own plane tied up and convenient to his office, and when he became a candidate for the Ohio Legislature he toured his constituency from the air and made many rousing speeches from the cock- pit. Mr. Ingalls aroused enthusiastic naval support when he flew in this same plane to take over his office in aeronautics, succeeding Edward Pearson Warner. W. Irving Glover, Assistant Postmaster General in Charge of the Airmail, as becomes his position, is a confirmed birdman and never enters a train or motor without registering dissatisfaction. But all of these officials and many Sena- tors and members of the Lower House who Mrs. Davison, wife of the Assistant Secretary of War for Aeronautics, and her children, after one of their airplane trips over the National Capital. the Navy . .. “Zoover Field for the Commerce Department officials. But liitle has been done for the civilian who longs to fly and there are Mrs. Guy Despard Goff, wife of the Senator from West Virginia, in a plane at &lsturb the serenity of the skies with whirrings and buzzings have such comforts which Bolling Fleld provides for the Army, Anacostia for Edith Nourse Rogers, member of Congress from Massachusetts, ready for a flight over Washington, Bolling Field. many and some who are close enough to officials to make a claim. Mrs. Guy Despard Goff, wife of the Senator from West Virginia, has been flying as a passenger for 10 years and, like Senator Capper, she would like a plane of her own and the usual facilities afforded at well equipped aviation centers, Mrs. Goff travels most reluctantly in any way except an airship. She is engaged in a spir- ited campaign for women to have what is called “air ease” and to have them study train accidents, tragedy through autos, all such, and compare them with the comparatively few mishaps of the air. She is also finally con- vinced that the future of human. transporta- tion progress is in the air. Her experiences have been many and exciting, and she can paint a graphic verbal picture, “I cannot remember when I did not envy the ability of a bird to fly,” said Mrs. Goff, recently. “and grumble that I was deprived of such exhilarating adventure. From the time that airships became a scientific and depend- able method of transportation I became obsessed with the desire to mount to the skies. But I had to wait until May 30, 1920, to realize this ambition and my journey was from Paris to London, directly over the English Channel, A friend casually said that she was taking the journey and suddenly I decided that I would accompany her. I could not close my eyes the night before my adventure and at the first peep of dawn I was at Le Bourget determined not to miss a single thrill connected with our taking off. So firmly was I committed to flying as my future means of geiting from one place to another that I had brought a trunk. “‘But madam,” said the guard, ‘we have never taken trunks’ But I assured him he would on this occasion and he did, although the effort of loading it onto the plane resulted in the rush of half the intended passengers from my plane to another which was ready for flight. How that journcy stands out im every detail! We flew very low across Abbe- ville to the sea, with horses scampering and hens flapping their wings in terror and the noises of the cities over which we passed quite audible. When we reached the Channel it was to become enveloped in fog and mount upward at great speed. Then the engines made so much noise that we packed our ears with cotton wool and found some ease. I took an unholy delight as the clouds would shift in seeing the boats in the Channel plunging madly while we flew by without a quiver. But a storm broke and lightning played about us and we got into air pockets without number, and on the whole received a full value of excitement and danger before in two and a half hours from Paris we landed with the grace of a gull in Croydon. I can laugh every time I think of a storm-tossed Englishman and his daughter who suddenly appeared among us looking wild and disheveled and with that “never again look” in his eyes. They had been very warm in their first crossing and hungry, too, for the planes then provided no food. So on the return they took outside seats and had a most delectable lunch all spread when the storm caught them unaware and their basket was dashed seaward and they came near fol- lowing it in person. “What I have dubbed my gentlemanly ex- perience happened in Manila when my husband and I went off in a hydroplane bound for Corregidor, the fortified island off the coast and far out in the ocean. For a time it was heavenly, the lovely contour of the islands, the azure sky reflected in the water and the world all to ourselves. Without a word of warning black smoke began to pour about us, the air became intolerably hot and thick with the blacker and more acrid smoke. We began to make short turns and every time we banked we had to cling convulsively to the sides for fear of being pitched headlong into the sea. Our spirals became smaller and smaller, but our Army pilot was so calm, skillful and alert that I was confident he could overcome the tremendous odds against him and he did. We landed in perfect form although we were black as chimney sweeps and a bit shaken in our gait. We learned that although this seaplane was deemed trustworthy Congress had ap- propriated such a paltry sum for keeping the insular air transports in good condition that many accidents had occurred, and we had barely escaped the unpleasant fate of being cremated in mid-air or drowning by jumping into the water. “My happiest memory of an air journey was in that fine F-32, the largest plane ever built in the United States. It will be recalled how brilliant was her christening and the first flight, and that in the three days spent in Bolling Field nearly 1,000 passengers were given a delightful trip over Washington and into the surrounding country. The cabin was insulated and in the most luxurious chairs the passengers could chat across the aisle. My near neighbors were air enthusiasts who had brought their son to celebrate his second birthday in this novel fashion. I was filled with grief when I read on Thanksgiving morning of the total wreck of this beautiful and promising plane and the n:ws depressed me for days.” EDITH NOURSE ROGERS is the Nation's pioneer flying Congresswoman. For six years past Mrs. Rogers has used a plane almost to the exclusion of other methods of trans- Continued on Twenty-first Page.