THE AEROPLANE AGE.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17837, 9 October 1929, Page 7

THE AEROPLANE AGE.

RELIABILITY OF TRAVEL. REVOLUTION IN TRANSPORT. (From a Correspondent.) WASHINGTON, August 24. The airplane as a means of long and short-distance transportation is now completely dependable, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Ernest Lee Jahncke said over the radio. Mr Jahncke has just concluded a tour-of inspection by air of all the naval stations in the Continental United States as well as in the Hawaiian Islands, although the journey to and from San Francisco to Honolulu was made by boat. Within ten years he predicted the airways will be as dotted with airplanes as the highways to-day are with automobiles. "The peace-time activities of the navy, rellecting increased comfort, efficiency and progress in civil life, form one of the outstanding impressions of my tour of inspection of the American fleet and the naval activities in the Pacific,” lie said. “I made the entire trip by air, and in 120 hours crossed the North American Continent twice, once by the northern rim and once by the southern rim. We had flown every inch of the Pacific Coast from Mexico to British Columbia. We had travelled more than 12,000 miles by air, and I had learned the lesson of tlie complete dependability of modern air travel.

Airplane No Longer Novelty. i | “By grace of the airplane I have : been able to imprint upon my mind I such pictures of the navy yards at | Pensacola, New Orleans, San Diego, j San Francisco, Seattle and Honolulu I as 1 never could have obtained by any ! other means. By grace of the airi plane 1 have spanned a continent j twice, as easily and comfortably as, ; when a business man, I had stepped i into my automobile and spanned the ' distance between my home and my j office, and as safely and dependably, j “As a civilian I sec things through | the eyes of business, as do millions | of other Americans, and I to-day see ! America through the eyes of the air- ! men, who are bringing to this nation ! as great a transportation revolution as the railroad men once brought, as the automobile men brought, witlfin the memory of millions living to-day. “America has taken to the air. The airplane is no longer a novelty; it is hardly an adventure. It is nothing mysterious any more. The airplane is, with us, as much routine as the automobile, if not as numerous, and is as dependable as ttie railroad train, and the next ten years will see our skyways charted and filled j as our highways are charted and filled to-day.” American cities which recognise the fads of the airplane and its future and are building airports are, Mr Jahncke declared, tapping new sources i of wealth so great that the most opti- j mistic are more likely to underesti- i mate it than to overestimate it. American cities, lie said, which fail I to vision the future of air transporta- j lion will in the not distant future find themselves in the same position as the j cities of two or three generations ago ; which ignored the possibilities of rail transportation. !

Small Cities Have Airports. ! “The lack of community foresight |in cities and towns,” Mr Jahncke ; continued, “that fail to provide airports to-day can only be compared j with the lack of foresight in a com- ] rnunity that to-day would build a road j for three or four buggies when from i 150 to 500 automobiles a day would ; use a modern highway were it built. | “un this 12,000-mile flight it gave j me a thrill 10 sec the little cities keen I and alert to the future, that have built ! modern airports. In my memory Island such names as these: Medford, j Ore., a little city that saw sky traflic ! over the crests of the Klamath Range and built a great airport to meet it when it came. We refuelled there. "Cheyenne, Wyo., a clean, keen city set in the midst of endless plains, where to-day the airplane can find all it needs on a great landing field just as once that city stood ready to equip | a cowboy. “North Platte, Neb., where, in the I midst of tlic Nebraska prairie, once the ! homo of the buffalo, the Irans-eonli- j ncnlal airway air fleets to-day can | come to anchor, and do. “Patterson, La., where the enter- j prise of one Louisianan lias provided j an airport in which one can refuel j between New Orleans and Houston. “Moline, 111., just across the river ! from Davenport, lowa. “These are the little cilies that have | won their places un the air maps of j America. They have lapped this new j source of wealth; money is coming j into their coffers already from this in- 1 vestment. I

“Swift, Dependable, Safe.”

“Just as American communities had : lo awaken a generation ago to the : great new movement of llie people ; brought by the automobile, so j America's cities, small as well as j large, must awaken to the great new i movement by air. { “Tile era of air has come. The i airplane, properly inspected, eonipe- j tently piloted, is swift, dependable, ! and safe. The plane in which I flew i 12,000 miles started the flight after: 1 700 air hours without a major over- !

| hauling. | “In the 12,000 miles it carried me J across the great American Desert, over | the Rocky Mountains, over the Allcgj hany Mountains, and over the Mojave j Desert, from border to border and i coast tu coast. One spark plug wore I out and one rocker arm was renewed, j and that was all. The airplane has j come not merely to slay but to grow, i “It is up to Hie States and cities j of America to build airports to handle ! this traflic that is here. When an American can breakfast in El Paso and dine in Eos Angeles, as I have done, can take off jn San Francisco in the morning and reach Salt Lake City before sunset; can awaken in Dayton, Ohio, and lunch in Washington, D.C., it is time for America’s cities to provide the airports that will put these cities on the map and reap the harvest, that is waiting to be gathered. “In California 1 found the gasoline lax that, collected from automobiles, goes to build that Slate's superb j roads is remitted to aviators. I took I the liberty of suggesting there that it j be collected from them and spent for airports. Should Build Airports. “The suggestion was welcomed and ! approved, and now I take the liberty of suggesting lo every State and city ; of America that, by whatever local ! means are deemed best, a definite pro- j gramme lie adopted looking to the im- ! mediate financing and construction of j modern, adequate airports that meet ! the requirements of the United States : Covernment to put them in the classification of the best, for the time is ■ coming soon when Hie city without an !

airport will be in the same plight as Hie city without an automobile highway or without a railroad station.” Mr Jahncke told of the peace-time aviation activof the navy, the work of the naval aviators in surveying and discovery in Alaska, its varied activities in the continental United States, as well as in the insular possessions.