Italy, France and Great Britain quickly enacted codes based upon the International Aerial Convention, laid out aerial routes and took such other steps as seemed wise in order to develop civil transport in the air as a measure of future safety, and economic growth. And to each came very definite honors. Thus Belgium won the international balloon race and France the international airplane race for the Gordon Bennett trophies. Italy successfully completed the 10,000mile flight from Rome to Tokio and England opened and traversed the aerial highway spanning Africa from Cairo 5,000 miles to the Cape. In actual accomplishment it would appear at first that the United States led the world. An American excelled the altitude record made by another American in 1919 by reaching the stupendous height of 33,114 feet. The famous N.C.-4, first to fly across the Atlantic, made an 8,000-mile flight around the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and up the Mississippi river. Four Air Service planes "blazed" a new trail through the uncharted Northwest, flying 9,000 miles from New York to Nome, Alaska, and return. A squadron of F.-5-L's accompanied the Atlantic fleet on a 13,000-mile cruise through the West Indies and withstood hardships of wind and water better than many of the surface craft. In the Pulitzer race, on Thanksgiving day, the planes taking first and second places, both American designed and built and powered with American designed and built engines, set new speed records. And, finally, at Le Mans, France, there was unveiled a monument to the memory of Wilbur and Orville Wright - a testimonial to the Americans whose patient, practical experimentation on the sand hills of Kitty Hawk, N. C., showed man how to fly and thus made all these things possible. Within the United States and insular possessions it is estimated that 15,250,000 miles were flown during 1920, divided as follows: It is believed that approximately 225,000 passengers were carried by the civilian machines, in addition to many tons of freight. The year witnessed the establishment of pioneer transport lines, hopeful that Congress would shortly enact an aerial code, making easier credits and more satisfactory insurance rates possible and provide otherwise for the encouragement of the art. HANDICAPS EXPERIENCED IN AMERICA But the true picture of the year can not be painted wholly in brilliant colors. There was a gloomier aspect which was due partly to the fact that commercial flying was new and in many respects untried and partly to the fact that the national consciousness, reacting from the war, was inclined to forget all arms and to be more or less indifferent to the early struggles of an art which, although it captivated the fancy, did not could not add forthwith to the wealth of the world. And in this situation some saw a reflection of the state of mind which first ridiculed, then doubted, then enthusiastically utilized the steamboat and the railroad. National neglect was manifest, on the one hand, in the depleted aeronautical establishments of the Army and Navy and the shrunken industry, to which the national defense must look for men and materiél. On the surface it would appear that the government activities have covered the entire field and in a sense they have, but there is now apparent an increasing tendency to believe that greater progress will obtain if there is worked out some proper organization to centralize many of these activities and to specialize in the development of civil and commercial aeronautics. By actual count, at the close of 1920, there were twenty-one official or semi-official services, bureaus or agencies dealing with the art, each faithfully endeavoring to be of assistance. These activities are: U. S. Army Air Service.... U. S. Navy...... U. S. Marine Corps..... The Aeronautical Board..... The Helium Board.. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.. U. S. Post Office Department.. Forestry Service..... Forest Products Laboratory. Coast Guard........... .Organizes and maintains air forces for the military establishment. .Aviation activities, scattered among various departmental bureaus, carried on for naval establishment. ...Organizes and maintains aviation units Organized to co-ordinate Army and Organized to facilitate gas development .Develops helium and utilizes aircraft in Maintains flying corps for life and property saving at sea and for transportation. Public Health Service.... Coast and Geodetic Survey... Bureau of Fisheries.... . Controls clearance from and entrance into U. S. ports of aircraft. Utilizes aircraft in correcting existing charts and making new maps. . Developing utilization of aircraft in fishspotting. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Gathers aeronautical information Commerce Bureau of Standards... Sub-Committee on Commercial abroad. .. Conducts aerodynamical research work. Committee on Foreign Trade..... Designed to co-ordinate aeronautical Board of Surveys and Maps.. Interdepartmental Meteorology Committee on contact among State, War, Navy, Commerce, Post Office and other departments. Promotes use of aircraft in mapping. ...Designed to prevent duplication of meteorological work by Army, Navy and Weather Bureau. In gathering data for this Year Book the editors have been impressed with what is really a remarkable record. And it is all the more notable because of the lack of a clearly defined national policy and programme. Those whose privilege it is to aid in the development of an art which promises so much encouragement in man's constant effort to eliminate space and secure dominion over inertia, not unnaturally have ever in mind the prospect of what can be accomplished with handicaps removed. Therefore the following chapters are written with a two-fold purpose: First, to portray truthfully what has been done, and Second, to indicate how best we may advance. |