Show Ii i The Air Mail i By DR FRANK CRANE About seven years ago the air man mall in the tho United States was inaugurated At present there are five eighty-five planes being used and forty or fifty pilots and carrying some persons and pieces of ot mall maU The service began with the transcontinental airplane airplane airplane air air- plane In 1917 The plane service was originally under the Joint auspices of ot the war and departments Now It Is Js under the exclusive management of ot the postmaster general senera Mr Harry S S. S New ew The regular service over the New York San Francisco route oute began July 1 I 1924 and since then there has been no serious interruption to the dally daily service Some time ago a n flier mer who was apparently obeying obey obey- ing instructions struck a mountain on his regular trip to Chicago end and was killed This does not prove the failure of ot the service but It shows that It is yet In Its Infancy The ordinary time required for the flight Is thirty four hours and forty-five forty minutes going west and two thirty-two hours and five rive minutes coming east The distance Is Js 2680 miles The fastest express trains require more than four d days s 's for lor this trip while the planes fly at miles s an hour The route Is well marked mared and there are beacon lights at every twenty five twenty miles with extra powerful powerful powerful power power- ful ones every 00 miles All flying Is still Dangerous but the record of ot the air service e Is comparatively free from serious accidents S SIt It It- was five and a half halt months before the first pilot was km killed d. d At first only souvenir senders and similar persons persons persons per per- sons used the air all mall but now It Is used by busIness business business busi busI- ness men bank officers and for movie films It will not b be long tong before the entire continent is linked by air all lines and It Is entirely possible that the air service will tak take the place of af the present postal service I Two-thirds Two of or the air transport routes of Europe are ate operated by Germany All of the the large arge eWes clUes of Germany are linked d by a regular air line The above summary of at facts concerning airplanes Is taken from Loose Leaf Current Topics Copyright 1925 by McClure Newspaper Syndicate I. I |