Evening Star Newspaper, April 3, 1932, Page 51

AVIATION BY JOSEPH 8. EDGERTON. EVELOPMENTS of the past week promise to have lasting eflect’ on air transport development in the National Capital. Chief D among them are the beginning of negotiations for a merger s of Eastern Air Transport and the Ludington Line, transfer of night airmail from Bolling Field to Washington-Hoover Airport, launching of a Senate airmail investigation, which some observers believe will lead to complete reorganization of the contract airmail system, and a rearrangement of local air transport schedules. Passing of the Ludington Line by merger with Eastern Air Trans- port and of Century Air Lines by combination with American Air- ways, both forecast in reports to members of Congress, would wipe out the last two great “independent” airlines and would concentrate virtually all the Nation's air transport activity in four large com- panies, the so-called “Big Four.” It-is the gradual stamping out of the independents and the con- centration of airmail power into what amounts to a monopoly which has been largely instrumental for a storm of criticism of Post Office Denartment policy and a resulting wave of congressional investiga- tions, aimed at reorganization of the Government% airmail system. The Ludington Line is justly regarded | clusive of 1,532,156 pounds of privately #s one of aviation's true pioneers. It is | carried freight and express. In 1930 a one of the largest air passenger lines in | total of 2,760,207 pounds of express the world, and is the first to provide | were flown on the domestic air tran interstate air transportation on railroad | port lines, this figure including 2.400 frequency. Ludington has struggled in | 684 pounds of privately carried express vain to obtain airmail contracts, but | and freight matter. has in every instance lost out to Eastern Alr Transport, which now flies every | Alrmail Increased. ounce of airmail along the Atlantic sea- | Airmail pourMage flown on the do- board south of New York | mestic lines last year amounted to 9,- The fact that Eastern Air Transport | 097,411 pounds, as compared with has been handed extension after exten- (985,010 pounds the year before, while sion without bidding or competition, in | airmail payments during that period the face of Ludington efforts to get mail | creased from $14,702,655 to $19.900.2 contracts, is one of the leading reasons| In the foreign service conducte for the congressional investigations American owned and operated lines Under the circumstances, a merger of | Canada and the countries of the La Ludington and Eastern Air has appeared | Americas the total mileage of scheduled inevitable. The first word that the|air transport lines decreased from 4.- merger was in process came from the 952,569 miles in 1930 to 4.630,570 last lips of Postmaster General Walter F.|vear, but the number of passengers Brown when he appeared before the | flown was increased from 42,570 in 1930 House Committee on Post Offices and ' to 52,364 last year. Post Roads in connection with that| committee's airmail investigation a few days ago. At the same time the com- mittee was informed that Century Alr Lines, operated by Errett L. Cord, were in process of combining with American {rways. holder of 11 airmail contracts. Cord, like the Ludingtons, had made vain efférts to obtain airmail contracts, even offering to carry mail at half the price paid by the Government to exist- ing contractors. Merger Delay Promised. Senator Kenneth McKellar of Ten- nessee, father of the rgsolution under which & special subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads will push a thorough inves- tigation of the entire airmail situation, said that the committee, alarmed by reports that Ludington and Cord were being bought out to hush them up in view of the coming probe, had asked the Postmaster General about the reports. Brown, Senator McKellar said, had as- sured Senator Oddie, chairman of the special commitge, that there would be no such merg: made in advance of the_investigatic The Senate committee is composed of five members, three Republicans and two Democrats, Besides Oddie and McKellag, the members are Senators George H. Moses of New Hampshire and Wallace H. White, jr., of Maine, Republicans, and_James F. Byrnes of South Carolina, Democrat. * The committee has the power, lacked by other congressional committees which have studied the airmail matter, to subpoena and swear witnesses and to require ‘production of docu -entary evidence. The group, sccorc \g to Fenator McKellar, will make : 1 use “i's powers to get to the bo*ym of criticlsms which _have b~-1 rife + the Post Office Dep: ‘ment ° time this was written the com- had get no dafe for the begin- r'~~ of its investigation, but it is ex- - ‘het the hearings will begin irmediatelr. Night Airmail Moves. of the night airmail from Ficld to Washington-Hoover came during the past week four years of operation under a temporary”’ permit, often renewed. at the Army fiying field. Wnen the War Department granted Pitcairn Aviation then operating the New York-Wash- ington Airmail, the right to use Bolling Ficld there was no commercial airport in the National Capital area. The War Depariment issued a re- | seble pen for use of the Army | ficld, contrary to general policy, upon condition thet trict government take steps to provide a municipal airport to which the airmail service could be moved. Months | of futile effort to have an airport con- structed by the Federal and District | governments followed | Washington Airport was developed | by private capital, became the terminal | for far-flung air transport operations | and was merged with Hoover Field ‘The night airmail remained at Bolling Field because of a reluctance on the art of Eastern Air Transport, which ad bought out the Pitcairn Line, air- mail contracts and all, to operate at night out of a field hordered by power lines. Assurance has been given the transport company that these lines, h extend along the Washington- wond highway, soon will come foreign air transport lines more than tripled, from a total of 109,048 pounds {in 1930 to 363.289 pounds last year. ‘The miscellaneous flying operations | covered by the report include such operations as student instruction, ex- perimental fiying, charter work, sight- seeing, “taxi” flying and pleasure flying. totaled 94,343,115 miles. a decrease from the 1930 total of 108,269,760 miles. The number of passengers carried for hire in miscellaneous operations last § ? \ ¥ Field Is Air Center. ‘Washington-Hoover Airport now is the center of all air transport oper- ations out of the National Capital. Transport planes operate from there to citles up and down the entire Atlantic Coast from Canada to Florida, across the Alleghenies to Pittsburgh and Cleveland and across the Gulf States to the Pacific. There sre direct air connections to Mexico, the Indies, Cen- tral and South America, Canada and to all parts of the United States. In recognition of the growing im- portance of the local air transport terminal, the United States Weather Bureau la moved its local air- ways weath station from Bolling | -Hoover Airport At the Tra; reduced its Rick Norfolk schedules, which had made di- rect connections from the Capital, from three round trips daily to a single trip. Passengers only are carried on this run. The Ludingion Line is awaiting de- several fast Fleetster planes to te a high-speed express service Washington and New York. 1es in operation serv- | hour will be provided | 2 h day hmond the Staad ers and flew a | according to | s by the Aeronautics Department of Com- The scheduled air lines, including American lines extending into Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, carried 522,345 passengers in 1931 total of 47,385,987 miles, the \der of the passenger fiying being ed to operators coming in the miscellaneous classes. The records show substantial in- creases in traffic on the scheduled air lines last year, as compared with 1930 but the activities of the miscellaneous oper: Milea: flown ate freight ! dule, as compared | with 31,992,624 miles, which included | 280,093 miles flown in carrying freight and express on schedule in 1930 The number of passengers carried on the domestic air transport lines last ;u.r totaled 466,981, as compared with 74,935 during 1930. Express poundage on the domestic trans| lines totaled 788,059 pounds in 1931, this figure ex- Express poundage on the American | In such operations the mileage flown | akes SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., APRIL 3 RETURNING TO MOUNT VERNON WASHINGTON NOW DEVOTED HiM-— BELF TO THOSE THINGS CLOSE TO HIS HEART. ONE MIGHT HAVE FOUND HIM RIDING OVER. TH_E PLANTATION CAREFULLY EXAMINING THE CROPS. ON THE GENERAL'S \Lw'\'- BIRTHDAY NELLY CA.E"\Sr WAS MARRIED AT MOUNT VERNON TO LAWRENCE Lewrs® WHenS wam «+ AGAIN LOOMED, TH® TIME WITH FRANCE, THE COUNTRY { TURNED 7O HE OLD CHIEF, BUT THERE WAS NO WAR.' CAPTAIN TRUXTON WON A N/ VAL VICTORY OVER. THE FRENCH AND HAPPILY LAND CONFLACT WAS AVOIDED, 1932—PART FOUR } 4) ) a L. T e £no OF | WASHINGTON © 7 LLIFE " JOURNEY { WAS TREACHED ] AT MOUNT . VERNON ON DECEMBRR. 1, 1799. THE CLOCK. IN HIS R0OM WAS STOPPED AT,TME MOMENT, OF DEATH ; 1020 N THE EVENING AND THROUGH JALL THE YEARS THAT. HAVE. DASSED since { e MORTAL’ R MAINS OF AMERICA'S’ FIRST CITIZEN WERE LAID AWAY, THE GREAT AND SMALL® FROM MANY LANDS HAVE COME TO PAY HOMAGE AT HIS TOM®B., totaled 1,430,052 as against 1,840,492 for | without failure, the War Department | added safety factor to the fuel or oil | nitely greater than in gasoline engines— the preceding year, while the number of passengers carried for pleasure, at no charge. amounted to 457,849 in 1930 and 437,465 last year. | Rubber-Coated Tubi 1 The lives of many gallant aviators have been sacrificed because of broken gasoline lines in airplanes, especially in the days before parachutes came into common use, It which would stand up for years under ordinary usage; impossible to make tubing which would not crystallize and break under the incessant vibration of i Broken fuel lines starved motors, but in many in- stances poured raw gasoline into motor compartments, there to be ignited by hot exhaust piping or backfire from the expiring motor. Many combinations were tried. Rub- ber joints were used at all connections to reduce vibration. Rubber, exposed to oil and gasoline, however, rotted rapidly and broke. Vibration continued, with resulting failures. Various metals have been tried, but no metal or combination of metals proved a cure-all. t of its work at the Materiel Division, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, e Army Air Corps has recently de- oped & rubber-coated tubing, which has completed a 325-hour vibration test § i H § A SMALL PROFIT PER CAR! It’s not a secret ... DeSoto has clicked in a mighty big way. Sales have climbed fast in the past sixty days. (They're up 6 DeSoto’s tremendous sales have brought prices down. Today you can b: rd Coupe for $735 . . . the Standard 4-Door Sedan for $775. Prices F. O. B. Factory and Custom models slightly higher. DeSoto Motor Corporation, Di 1529 14th St. . Potomac % TORREY MOTOR CO. 1623 L $t. N | was easy to make metal tubing | § i |8 { § ahead of last year.) And that's just the point. on of Chrysler Motors, Detroit, Michigan, has just announced. | system. It was found in the tests The rubber-coated tubing is the result | that, even when the metal tube broke of long-continued experiments with |under the vibration, the rubber tube many, many types of tubing designed | served as a protective coating, pre- for use in aircraft fuel systems. Vari- | venting for the life of the rubber the | pounds’ ous mmetah I';‘r‘e smgechudo? grueling | leakage of fuel. | tests in a machine which produced con- | stant destructive vibration similar to D that encountered in airplanes, where | heavy, powerful motors are anchored | { only to very light frames. rn At dlsco\'rx?d that mdeLaLs made of aluminum alloys proved equal in|tention on a type of airplane power strength to copper, with the advantage | plant of which there is littie public of lighter weight. The expedient of|knowledge, though the motor already vulcanizing rubber tubing to the metal | has figured in several notable aviation tubing produced a surprising increase | explojts, including the establishment of of durability in the vibration tests, it| one of the four major world airplane was announced. In the fittings the | recorgs tube was flared and so designed that = The Diesel principle is not new. Ma- the shock-absorbing and sealing effect| rine and stationary Diesel engines have of rubber was carried inside the fit-| peen in use for many years. They ting, allowing decided flexibility at the| nave been exceedingly heavy, however. | joint. | In adapting the Diesel principle to The aluminum-rubber tubing, flared | aeronautics it was necessary to reduce at the fittings, stood up in the vibra- | excess weight far below the limits then tion machine approximately 250 hours, | regarded as ible. The Packard en- as compared with a duration limit of | gineers, chiefly the late Lionel M. Wool- about 25 hours for uncovered copper|son, cut the welght from 20 pounds or aluminum tubing. A re?on Just re- | per horsepower to a trifle more than | ceived from the power plant branch |two pounds. of the Materiel Division announces| The Diesel engine has no spark plugs completion of 325 hours of testing of | or other electrical ignition and does not the rubber-covered tubing in the vibra- | require a carburetor. Air alone is taken tion machine without failure | into the cylinders on the intake strokes. | hBesld;l&the greater durability factor, | Just before full compression is reached— the ru L ¥ l | | mer during which Walter Lees a overed tubing brings an!the degree of compression being infi- ' fu | ally tested. Last year when a fli fuel ofl of the type used in furnaces is sprayed into the cylinders. Compres- sion of the air to something like 5,000 pressure generates suMicient heat to Instantly ignite the oil spray, the power being delivered as from a The awarding of the Collier Trophy ! gasoline explosion. to the Packard Motor Car Co. for m{h development of the Diesel airplane | plogiaen;’ | engine has served to focus public at-|Trophy during the past week from the “The engine will operate on any ydrocarbon,” Alvan Macauley, Packard who received the Colller hands of President Hoover, told mem- bers of the Aero Club of Washington at the annual Colller Trophy luncheon. “Capt. Woolson used to insist that it would run with melted butter as a fuel, although I believe this was never actu- ght to Europe over Greenland's ice cap was being planned by the Transamerican Airlines Co. with one of our motors as the power plant of the plane, pro- visions for the use of whale oil as | emergency fuel in the Arctic was seri- ousIAy flconlnlmered. “Actually during the rations for this fiight, tests were supcr:epl.smlly made with a mixture of gasoline and heavy lubricating ofl. In the flight last Sum- nd Fred Brossy established a new world non-fueling' duration record, an excess quantity of lubricating ofl which had been taken up in their Bellanca planes was pumped into the tanks and used as DISTRICT TOURIST CAMP | 3iin sn envotment of spproximaidy, PROVES MECCA FOR | ine tomp er oo Seotern srusamar: VISITING MOTORIST | of Amierica, United Cadet Corps of Delaware County, Pa. various groups and parochial and private schools. > b vision of the cl of the United (Continued Prom Fourth Page.) | Park Poilce. His men, during the cuur?e’; | of the camp's existence, have per- service, & cleaning and pressing service | formed a service of such a high calié’ 'and a sightseeing service conducted by ' ber that it can hardly be overrated 1" | nationally known motor bus lines with respect to their many dutles in making | de luxe parlor coaches. Those desiring | it pleasant and safe for the tourists, and the comforts of sightseeing in their | assuring them peace from those whe? | own motor may obtain the services of | menace the public safety. ot guides, a representative of which is Official statistics show that during | constantly detailed at the camp. the past calendar year the number of | During the height of the tourist sea- | persons registering at the camp reachgd son the period of domicile at the camp the total of 56,775, while the number of |1s restricted to two weeks, this limi- automobiles registered were recorded #%’ | tation being necessary and essential, as| 16,772. It is interesting to note that | otherwise many tourists would desire to | North Carolina led in the number -of remain indefinitely. The demand has| automobiles, Pennsylvania was a clogé” | been s0 great that this rule has been | second and the Lone Star State ef enforced in order to afford every one | Texas third. Virtually every State e an equal opportunity in_sharing the| the Union is represented at the camp comforts of the camp. Strange as it| at some time or other dus the year, | may seem, the population of this “little | including motorists from Unitea’ | city” ordinarily changes on the average | States insular possessions, South Amef-" | ab_?uht every 24 ha\u':j 7 | ica and Canada. 5 | e camp's extensive equipment per-| The increase in Capital vi ° | mits the accommodation of large fra- | year will be carefully iaken ?1':;"0:‘%‘; | ternal organizations, convention visitors, | the many organizations who are pres~ lodge and educational tourists. During | pared to handle such cases as these in. | the past year the largest organization | an effort to afford every Bicentennisi~ | visiting the camp for a short period was | visitor who comes to Washington either® | that of the Omnibus College students,| by motor or otherwise every courtesy: It’s fun to Drive a Car that starts a voGuE 'AKE a look at this picture! Imagine yourself driving a smart-looking car like this. Going places. Stepping out. High- hatting everybody. And don’t make the mistake of thinking you can’t afford it. That's just the point. DeSoto looks expensive...but it really isn’t. When you figure the trade-in on your old car you'll find you can own a new DeSoto for only a few dollars a week. That's how thrifty it is to be smart this year. And listen! If you’re being “dollared to death” by repair bilis:..come in and let us make you a real trade-in proposition. DeSoto Roadster for $675 . District Motor Company N.W. 1000 MACK'S SERVICE Hyattsville, Md. BE SURE TO SEE THE NEW 1932 PLYMOUTH AT ALL Dt SOTO SHOWROOMS TODAY DeSoto Six-:675 First . . . we’'ll let you drive 2 new DeSoto aad discover for yourself the thriHl of Float- ing Power . . : Automatic Clutch: : . DeSoto Free-Wheeling with Hydraulic Brakes. You can get the thrill of DeSoto per- formance . . . and a real vibrationless ride; But this is nothing to the thrill you'll get when you find out how little it costs to own one. That’s where we come in. This is the time of the year when Used Cars are in great demand . .. and so we'se making generous allowances on trade-ins: Drivearound. .. and let us tell you the sest of this story with facts and figures: ANDUP F.0.B. FACTORY Blanton Motor Company New York Ave. at N. Cap. St. National 6666 MORELAND MOTOR CO. Waldorf, Md. MT. VERNON MOTORS CORP., 1234 9th St. N.W. AS Low As 9 ©O. B. FACTORY