OCR Text |
Show With Ground Work Complete Comprehensive Program Is Development Requisite. By H:ERY B. HUNT. X. E. A. Staff Correspondent. WASHINGTON. The lack of any definite, comprehensive program for tho development of aviation as a really real-ly important arm of our national de-fenso de-fenso is- more than nfltchcd By tho absence of any organized effort among alrplano manufacturers to promote commercial aviation. With the exception of a few individuals indi-viduals and companies giving exhibitions, exhibi-tions, making aerial maps and providing provid-ing 8mall express and passenger services, ser-vices, there is llttlo use being made of aviation by private concerns. And yet tho groundwork Is all completed, by the government, for a system oC commercial aviation that could cover the entire country. Flying 'Maps Prepared. An aerial survey of the whole U. S. j has been made by the air servico of j the army, and .some 1,500 landing fields charted.. An aerial map has been prepared locating municipal and emergency fields and giving important impor-tant topographical and aeronautical' information. This survey required more than 300,000 miles of flying. Tho best aid to commercial aviation avia-tion has been provldod by. the government's govern-ment's air mail. Between Cloveland and Chicago the air mail accomplished a world's record rec-ord of 205 consecutive 325-mile nonstop non-stop trips without a forced landln? of any kind. The big n-.istakc that has been made in attempts at commercial aviation avia-tion to date in the United States, MaJ. Gen. Charles T. Menohor of the Air Service Gays, Is that we have tried to fit commercial uses to army planes instead of building new planes to fit definite commercial uses. Encouragement to private commercial commer-cial aviation Is given in the legislation legisla-tion now before congress providing for a government Department of the Air. Among the other functions of that department would be the establishing estab-lishing of aerial routes throughout the Unitod States and Its possessions and co-operation with municipalities In providing airdromes and landing fields to be used in common by fed-oral, fed-oral, stato municipal Pon' nwclal and private aircraft. Commercial planes not only could use theso altcs for landing, but could procure at them gas, oil and suppllos at cost to the government. Iligh Cost to Purchasers. " The present handicap to a widespread wide-spread use of the airplane as a prl-vato prl-vato convoynnce Is Its cost. Manu-1 facturers estimate, on the basis of In-! quirlcs received, that there aro in tho United States today 10,000 customers who would buy planes for prlvato uses If they could bo procured in the neighborhood of $2,500. Howuvor, under present cost conditions, it la impossible to build a reasonably con-j con-j structed and sufficiently powered machine ma-chine at a lower price than ,'?7, 500, and this price involves tho 'use of i the lowest cost engine known' and no special finish. If the government holds to' a moderate mod-erate aerial program as It probably will this year then there wll be no immedio,te stimulus to commercial aviation. Construction of airplane on government gov-ernment account virtually Has ceasod, pending action by congress) The Postofflco Department is the only government agency buying airplanes, air-planes, and Its orders fo'r tho pa3t six months coverod only .Vl planes. Tho stoclc of planoHy accumulated undor war contracts consists of 8,-554 8,-554 training planes, 4,8H DeHavIland is and 112 mlscellanettun and experimental experi-mental planes. j Private manufacturers, after spond-ing spond-ing vaat amounts In experimentation, i ,suddenly found that their ventures were bringing them heavy winnings 1 In war contracts. Since they have "cashed in," few aro Willing to resume re-sume plunging in the aviation game. Tho situation i..n be compared with What would have happened in the infancy in-fancy of the automobile Industry if all the strugglSg pioneers had suddenly sud-denly found 1 mselvcs compensated manyfold for their outlays and had decided to let well enough alone. |