WANTED—AN ALASKAN AERO MAIL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2677, 4 August 1913, Page 8

WANTED—AN ALASKAN AERO MAIL.

An aeroplane mail-service for the snow-olad wilds of Alaska is proposed by lieut. Gerald E. Cronin, of the 9th U.S. Infantry, in Paying (New York). During the last session of Congress the postal authorities asked for means to try experiment, but were refused, largely owing to the opposition of Representative Moon, of Tennessee. The editor of Flying expresses the opinion in a preliminary note that Mr Moon’s acquaintance with the subject is not of tile best, and he endorses Lieutenant Cronin’s views on the subject. Alaska, ho says, is as easily traversed by tho »ir route as the Alps, the Pyrenees or the Apennines, all of which have been flown over. “Aero mail,” says the editor, “can do more good for Alaska than anything else that Congress can give it.” We read: . “To the people who live in the Central States where the mail is collected and delivered many times a day, and the combination of fact trains, automobiles, and other up-to-date facilities, unrestricted by any physical obstructions, affords them quick and reliable mail-service, aero mail may seem a vagary, and they may smile at Harry Jones’ attempt to compete with tho fast Boston-New York express and parcel post in carrying baked beans to bean lovers along the Boston-New York route. But to those who live in tho isolated places in northern Alaska, and in the Arctic Circle, and have to wait week* and months for their mail for news from the active, outer world, aoro mail looms up as a veritable relief. And one who is in touch with the swift developments of aviation conceives of an aeroplane line over the White Pass, or from White Horse down the Yukon to St. Michael and Nome, and looks forward to the establishment of such a lino with eager expectancy. . . .

“A hydro-aeroplane fitted to carry a hundred-pound load of mail could fly from tho steamer’s dock at Skagtray to White Horao in less than two hours, assuming the machine to be travelling at the average rate of between fifty and sixty miles an hour, which is now tho standard speed for aeroplanes. At Whit© Horse, machines could be changed for tho next stage of the journey to Selkirk. 272 miles distent. The trip from 'White Horse to Selkirk could be made in little ovor four and one-half hours, as against tho present time of twenty-four. Within another three hours Dawson would be reached. At this point considerable delay could be eliminated by the aero-mail service, and a five-and-a-half-hour flight would bring it to Fort Yukon which lias under tho Arctic Circle. . . . “Almost any of the aeroplanes that the U.S. Army tests could bo used for mail-carrying, although larger surfaces and enclosed body would bo more suitable. Tho new requirements for tho scout aeroplane will develop a suitable typo, which can be fitted with automatic stabilisers, to afford additional safety. The enclosed body, heated with tho heat derived from the motor, will make it possible to travel in the coldest weather when home slods and dog teams are held up. “While it can easily he expected that an aeroplane of this type will travel for four hours without stopping, at a minimum speed of fifty-miles an hour in straight line, in tho beginning the atationa could bo closer, sav, 100 to 160 miles from each other, which could •asily be covered at a single flight. Allowing a load of between 50 and 150 pounds of mail to each flight, which i* only a fraction of the load which tha machines must carry to pass the military tests, tho problem of mailcarrying in Alaska would be happily solved, and the great handicap of inaccessibility being removed, Alaska would ■tart in a new period of development, industrial and social. “The rivers are the commercial arteries of Alaska. In summer steamers ply; in winter dog sledges glide over the frozen surface. Real business activities continue in Alaska only during tho summer months; in the winter those people who do not ‘mush’ out to Seattle and civilisation merely exist until tho next season.

“The southeastern coast is girt with the greatest mountains and glaciers of the continent; but the broad northern valleys of the shoal Yukon and its tributaries, and of the streams that flow toward the Arctic, are mostly lowstretching country, hare hills of not much ruggedness, and great plains of tundras, or moss ridges, and soggy lagoon-dotted marshland. “Along these streams that are too shallow for navigation, and over this low, bare country, the aeroplane, adapted for water work as well, could be of a most excellent and practical service to-day. linking the now isolated camps and settlements of the interior and Arctic coast with the markets of civilisation. It is Uncle Sam’s business to serve all of his citizens, not merely those dwelling conveniently in citiea.

“And who can say that, once initiated, an aero-mail service would not bo found feasible to extend to take the place of the slow steamer and sledge service now maintained?”