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Show Postwar Air Freight To Be Within Reach of, Every Farmer and Everv Community of the Entire Country ;,. -; ,"-..,..... i.. -m; ,, j . .7y ,, ' .. .... :( . v . . t '" ' . , . ? ' A . , . ' t - ' T ! - X hiii "'" i : y v , ' ' - J Trained Pilots and Plenty Of Improved Planes for Everyday Needs of All By Walter A. Shead WNU Washington Correspondent. How about having those spare binder parts dropped in your farm lot by parachute? Or how about calling call-ing up and having a flying ambulance ambu-lance deliver you to the nearest hospital hos-pital for that emergency operation? Or If you are In a hurry for that order you placed, call up and have them deliver it at your gate by helicopter. Ridiculous, you say. Well, not so ridilculous as you may think, for the amazing progress of air transportation during the war is reflected in these very practical steps for a new horizon for commercial com-mercial operations as soon as peace permits. As a matter of fact, the Civil Aeronautics administration In the department de-partment of commerce has on file at this moment applications for 4hpiA nnrl mariv more new tvoes Photo shows a record shipment of penicillin, nearly 3,000 pounds. This is Just one of the many Items that will be handled almost entirely In postwar era by the new and existing taxi and air freight lines. - of civilian air business and these applications afford a stimulating picture of what the plane may soon be doing to advance new progress in American life and manner of living. liv-ing. Old and new hands at the flying game, Including many veterans still in uniform, have formed enterprises enter-prises now simply waiting for the official green light to serve the public pub-lic in many ways that would have been thought ridiculous or visionary a few years ago. For instance, some of the applications Include: Flying ambulance and funeral planes . . . armored airships for lafe dispatch of currency and other valuables . . . delivery of new auto-mobUes auto-mobUes by huge glider trains . . . tank planes for shipment of gasoline, gaso-line, oil and other liquids . . . bus and taxi service . . . deliveries of medicine, food and of other department depart-ment store merchandise . . . "fly-yourself" "fly-yourself" systems . . . sightseeing specialists . . . pick-up or delivery by parachute . . . and many others. These projects are in addition to applications for wide extension of service Into new territories sought by existing airlines and the entry of others into the fields of feeder, pick-up, general express and cargo husinpss. toward peacetime flying business with the keenest anticipation and toward whom official eyes will look with greatest sympathy are the soldiers sol-diers and sailors, some already discharged dis-charged veterans and others ready to take to the air as soon as they are discharged. Of the 350,000 military pilots which the war has produced, the majority who plan to make aviation their career, see their future as pilots for established airlines. There are, however, many who want to start their own business . . . nothing noth-ing fancy, understand, maybe just a local feeder line. There has been as yet no breakdown to learn just what percentage of the applications already al-ready filed are by servicemen, but the percentage is high. A typical one is the application filed only a few days ago by Lt. James Walker Case of Sutter Creek, Calif., 28-year-old navy flier. Lieutenant Case wants to start a business flying persons per-sons and property to all parts of California and Nevada in the most suitable available aircraft, just as soon as the navy lets him go. Taxi Rural Service. There is also the Norsemen Air Transport company, which turns out to be several servicemen who want proposes to begin with transport of 1 mail and later of persons and property on two circulating routes covering hitherto none too accessible accessi-ble places in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The proposed air ambulance service, serv-ice, no doubt, had its inspiration from the remarkable operations in evacuation of wounded by the air transport command of the army and navy and the airlines under contract con-tract with them. Two applications for this service now on file with the C.A.A. are by long-established undertaking firms, who plan to use the airplanes either as missions of mercy or for burial. One of them Is Shannon's of Fort Worth, Texas, 1 who proposes to operate a helicopter ambulance or hearse from their city to or from any points within 600 miles; from within that radius to any place in continental U. S. or from anywhere in the country to within that circle. An exactly similar simi-lar application is on file from W. C. Croy of Poplar Bluff, Mo. Julian Bondurant's Armored Motor Mo-tor service of Memphis would enlarge en-large his operation by use of airplanes air-planes throughout the south and southwest "on call and demand." The fabulous supply of our motor-i7cA motor-i7cA forces with fuel bv airnlane in Start New Enterprises. Applicants for certificates for these new enterprises cover the whole range of people who have been stirred to action by faith in the future of air transportation. In the active dockets of the department are the names of companies and individuals individ-uals with experience In transporting transport-ing persons and property by air. There are others who have had equally broad background in transportation trans-portation by steamship, bus, taxi-cab taxi-cab and truck and there are still others, such as department store owners, who are obviously strong in financial resources, but who have never, perhaps, even delivered their own parcels. Then there are the embryo airline air-line magnates, like the man and his wife who want to start an air freight line between Los Angeles and New York, and for specifications for their fleet, submitted colored cutouts cut-outs of a Liberator bomber from a Sunday supplement. As a matter of fact, practically all the applicators state in more or less apologetic terms that the applicants have no planes with which to start business. But since practically none will be available until after the war, they are all on an equal basis from that standpoint. The group of applicants who look to continue tuett wtii asui,iai.iuii by establishing feeder airlines throughout New England. Many of these projects may never see the light of day, but there are applications like that of Lt. Col. John C. L. Adams, who before being be-ing called back to his regular army job when war came, organized and operated an extensive air service in Panama. He wants to start a sightseeing sight-seeing business with helicopters or light planes, fanning out in various scenic routes from Cristobal and Balboa. Until he can start work sans uniform, his wife, Alberta, is getting things lined up. Then there are also a number of women who plan to start airlines on their own. Some of them, judging from their application papers, have already had successful careers in other lines of business. There is An-geline An-geline Harris of Rutherfordton, N. C, who proposes to start a scheduled sched-uled mail and passenger service linking the smaller towns in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, using either helicopters or light conventional planes. She proposes to land on postoffice roofs or the nearest available vacant lot. Mrs. Winifred Lucy Shefferly of Detroit, proposes to run a helicopter taxi service in Michigan and Mrs. T. W. Lanier of El Paso, Texas, the dash across France and elsewhere, else-where, probably influenced H. I. Moul, president of Coastal Tank Lines, Inc., of York, Pa., to file an application to supplement his fleet of 175 trucks with flying tankers. His" ships would carry 3,500 gallons of any kind of bulk liquid commodity in compartmentized tanks throughout through-out the United States and to Alaska, Alas-ka, Canada and Mexico. Autos by Air. Delivery of jeeps and trucks by airplane to the battle lines unquestionably unques-tionably gave T. P. Geddes of the Automobile Air Freight corporation of Detroit, the inspiration for similar simi-lar operations in peacetime. Before the war his firm was reputed to be the largest deliverers of new automobiles auto-mobiles in the world, by steamship on the Great Lakes and by the well-known well-known super-trucks. Their lake vessels ves-sels the year before the war transported trans-ported 180,000 cars. Now their concern con-cern proposes to do rush orders on the same job with huge cargo planes and glider trailers. They seek a certificate cer-tificate to transport automobiles from the middlewest to anywhere in the United States and to bring back general cargo to that area. Department store deliveries with the helicopter as the favored vehicle is proposed in dozens of applications on file. Perhaps the best known firms include the Hecht Company, Inc., of Washington, D. C, and the William Filene Sons company of Boston. Both would cover the metropolitan met-ropolitan area surrounding their cities and would also seek to serve their customers in smaller cities at greater distances. E. J. McKeown, president of the Producers Air Lines of Toledo, would use cargo planes, gliders and helicopters heli-copters in the transportation of perishable per-ishable foods, flowers, drugs, medicines medi-cines and medicine ingredients. A proposed plan of similar type is that of the Fish Airlines corporation, headed by Charles J. McGowan of New Bedford, . Mass., which would emphasize rushing sea foods from Massachusetts and Rhode Island to Ashless regions of the country. Plane builders have demonstrated that there may be a plane built for every purpose, that has been their record in wartime. And with plenty of skilled operators available, also as a result of the war, it remains to be seen whether or not the American Ameri-can publie is really ready to try its wings when peace comes. Drawing shows plane In full flight picking np mail sack. The same technique will be available In peace time and regularly routed commercial commer-cial planes are expected to drop and pick up packages while on the wing. |
