Show e ole a AVIATION ON NOTES FLYING FOOD rapid strides are being made to bring the day ot of sky tarm farm to mar ket roads into the scope of everyday reality from all indications it wont be too far in the future when the farmer will rely on air transport to fly an appreciable amount of his perishable produce to market several of the nations major airlines are conducting extensive experiments peri ments in connection with the speedy efficient and economical handling of flying food guy M springer a son of the fertile agricultural lands of texas and the midwest who 1 I general cargo manager for capital airlines says weve been flying almost every type of farm cargo imaginable but admittedly in small quantities recently we flew shipments of baby chicks from hatcheries in one large city to customers scattered through out the south this shipment proved it was economical to sky ship chicks because of virtual elimination of the usual high mortality rate in moving baby chicks then too says springer weve flown a live bull calf from birmingham alabama to washington where it was presented to president truman weve operated an aerial milk route from milwaukee wis to knoxville term tenn and weve hauled about as many mushrooms 2 as anyone would care to eat despite these varied ventures sky produce hauling still Is an experiment definitely on its way to becoming another tactual factual accomplishment of the airline industry but still just an experiment peri ment the aerial milk route is a case in point from milwaukee cow to southern distributor in six to 12 hours was the achievement of the initial deliveries li from mo morning mang mil bilkings kings in wisconsin 40 gallons of fresh milk were moved by truck to billy mitchell field airport loaded on a plane the milk was flown to knoxville where it was w as delivered less than eight hours later the movement of the fresh milk was accomplished with no extraordinary preparations the liquid was cooled to about 35 degrees at point of origin and it remained cool throughout the flight the same method has been used successfully in mover movement nent of seafood about the cost of sky shipping milk at present the bill for moving 10 gallon cans of milk with jackets by air is approximately five times the cost of moving them I 1 in baggage ge cars by rail but mass shipments and a more efficient and light means of holding the milk perhaps by cardboard containers could cut the cost down appreciably the flying stockcar that winged a three month old aberdeen angus bull from the deep south to washington definitely was the forerunner of things to come presented to president truman as a gift from alabama livestock producers interested in developing stock breeding in the south alabama Ala bams trip was more of a stunt than anything else but it proved that stock could be transported by air efficiently safely and economically most farmers wont consider mu mushrooms as part of their produce but it Is bread and butter to one man near pittsburgh an extensive producer he found that other means of transportation just wera were not last fast enough to deliver his hi highly perishable cargo so he turned to the airplane for help meantime airlines are continuing a program of developing cargo routes which will enable them to carry farm produce at rates in keeping with alth those of other transport methods currently used by agriculture |