THE AEROPLANE IN PEACE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2419, 26 March 1915, Page 3

THE AEROPLANE IN PEACE

— g America, to whose credit stand tie first really practical aeroplane flights in the performances of the Wright brothers, is taking steps to establish a scheme which, if successful, will mean another important milestone in the history of aeronautics definitely set down on the other side of the Atlantic. The .scheme, preliminary details of which ha\© been announced, is a (xovernnient one, and is to provide the United states with an aerial postal service. The idea is approached in no half-hearted, tentative fashion—once started, the service is to be borne by two thousand specially trained airmen. This is a very much more ambitious beginning than the experimental aerial postal service which was established in England between Hendon and Windsor in September, 1911. That was, of course, a special and temporarw demonstration of the possibility of bringing flight into tile service of the i'ost Office; and though charities benefited considerably by the proceeds it was never a very practical demonstration. The scheme was 6erved by only three or four airmen, there were big gaps in the service for which unfavourable flying weather was responsible, and in the twenty days or so during which it was in being there were several mishaps and one very serious accident. Howovcr, much has iiapened in the Hying world since 1911, and a higher standard of general proficiency now obtains among a much larger number of airmen. America may now be able to make something a great deal more important than a mere experiment out of her schemeindeed, she can hardly start it all in the proportions outlined without doing so. In any event, at a time when all the countries of the Old World arc proving so efficiently the possibilities of the aeroplane as an adjunct to war and weapons of destruction, it is hopeful and to find the New World endeavouring to harness it in the ser- ( vico of peace and amity.