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Show pus ra cum of LSll FIELDS ilOE Exhaustive Reports Made on Aerial Conditions Throughout Through-out United States NEW YORK. Feb. 7. Plans for the establishment of a chain of airplano landing fields have been worked out by" officers of the army air service and the Manufacturers' Aircraft association, asso-ciation, it was announced here today. Arnly flyers have 'covered more than 300,000 miles in -an aerial survey of the country and made exhaustive reports re-ports 011 the facilities offered to crosscountry cross-country flyers. Representatives of 32 large Southern South-ern cities already have been invited to establish landing fields under army direction.' Many others will receive like invitations during the next few months. These must be laid out according ac-cording to specifications given by the army and In return the government gives steel hangars to the municipalities. municipal-ities. Operation of the "air harbor" is assumed by the municipality. Since ' the armistice the number of army fields has been reduced from 50 to 16 and the naval air stations from 1? to 9. "The landing field," says the aircraft association. "Is to the airplane Avhat 1 the harbor Is to the ocean liner and the railroad terminal is to the train. ' It is not merely a flat piece of land on which a flyer can bring, his craft to earth. Such a piece of ground bears the same relation to a real landing field as an unimproved water inlet' bears to a harbor like New York orJ Liverpool. "A landing field should have, first of all, dimensions AVhich fit It to han-i die all forms or aircraft. It should be drained so as to permit its use even ' in the. wettest Aveather. It should have shelter and supplies for flyers and 1 their crafts and should be accessible to the trade center it is meant to' serve. This feature is of supreme Im-' portance because commercial aerial navigation will develop only in proportion propor-tion to its commercial value. Thel field should be identified Avilh markings mark-ings visible from great heights and with radio apparatus so that flyers may be aided in finding their Avav In spite of the fog or failure to Identify the country over which they are pass-1 ing. "Fields at frequent intervals mean that cross-country flyers can come to the earth for rest, replenishment or supplies and adjustments to their ma-' chines Avithout inconvenience or un-! necessary delay. in the event or a mis- hap in the air, such as a stalled mo-1 tor, the nearby landing Held permits, the pilot to glide to it Avithout damage! to the machine or to himseir. |