Military pupils. Left to right: McClaskey, Curtiss, Beck, Towers, Ellyson
"'Yes, air-routes are all right for practical mail-carrying,' Mr. Hitchcock continued, in answer to a question.'I mean,' he smiled,'the air is all right, but the vehicles must continue toward perfection. But even with the aeroplane as it is now it would be very useful to us, particularly in some parts of the country.
PRACTICAL VALUE TO-DAY FOR MAIL-CARRYING
"'Take along the Colorado River in the canon district of Yuma, for instance, or in parts of Alaska. Along the Colorado there are places where detours of fifty miles out of the way are made in mail routes to get to a bridge. An aeroplane could hop right across the river.
"'The expensiveness of maintaining an aeroplane service is an obstacle, but that will diminish. I would like to see the Post Office Department do something definite in this direction for the good effect it would have in stimulating the development of the machine. Fliers at present have many lean months between the meets.'"
Ever since Postmaster-General Hitchcock made this trip he has been an enthusiastic advocate of the aeroplane as a means of transporting mail over difficult routes. During the next few months he granted permission to a number of aviators, including Ovington, Milling, Arnold, Robinson, Lincoln Beachey, Charles F. Walsh, Beckwith Havens, Charles C. Witmer, and Eugene Godet, all of whom fly Curtiss machines, to act as special mail carriers, and these men have carried mail bags in similar exhibiting tests from aviation fields to points near the Post Office. Among the cities where such tests have been officially made are Rochester, N. Y.; Dubuque, Iowa; Fort Smith, Ark.; Temple and Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Savannah, Columbia, and Rome, Ga.; and Spartanburg and Salisbury, N. C.
The record for long-distance mail carrying is held by Hugh Robinson, who took a bag of mail at Minneapolis, Minn., and carried it on his long flight down the Mississippi River in a hydroaeroplane as far as Rock Island, Ill. The distance covered by Robinson was 375 miles on this trip, and letters and first class mail matter were put off and taken on at Winona, Minn.; Prairie du Chien, Wis.; Dubuque and Clinton, Iowa; and Rock Island, Ill.
Of course the aeroplane is, at present, best suited for carrying mail in localities where the weather is equable; in such places it offers a speedy, direct, and dependable service. These numerous experiments in mail-carrying by aeroplane have brought about the urging of an appropriation by Congress for this purpose. The second Assistant Postmaster-General, who is in charge of mail transportation, in a report that has just been made public at the time I am writing this, asks for $50,000 for the transportation of mails by aeroplane. Part of this fund may be devoted to mail routes in the Alaskan interior. One government has actively entered on practical mail-carrying by aeroplane. Belgium has voted a fund to establish routes across seven hundred miles of impenetrable Congo jungle.
WIRELESS
The aeroplane is ideal for use with wireless telegraphy and the combination of the aeroplane's ability to obtain information and the ability to transmit it by wireless will be one of its most important future developments in practical usefulness.