ing boats, two Curtiss " Seagull " flying boats were added to the company's fleet for use in the lighter type of work, while special twinmotored airplanes are being studied to meet other requirements peculiar to the Canadian woods. The Laurentide Company is constructing an elaborate land and seaplane station at Grand Mere, with hangars, workshops and living quarters for the flying personnel. At the same time other lumber companies, among them the Spanish River Pulp and Paper Company of Sault Ste. Marie; the Price Brothers Pulp and Paper Company, of Quebec, and the Brown Corporation, of Berlin, N. H., are planning flying services of their

own.

USE OF AIRCRAFT IN SPORT

The Laurentian Club, the great sporting and hunting club of Canada, which maintains scores of club houses throughout the wild regions between the St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay, is organizing an airplane line for the transportation of members and guests between its various club houses.

The cost of operating the large H. S.-2-L flying boats in the service of the Laurentide Company has been about $1.00 per mile of travel, while for the smaller Curtiss " Seagull " flying boats the cost was about 50 cents. The firm expects, however, to reduce costs considerably by a better utilization of its aircraft, including in one flight many duties. The actual cost of mapping has been about $6.00 per square mile for a map containing all details at a scale of 400 feet to an inch, where an airplane was used for mapping only. By combining the map work with other duties, such as fire patrol and transportation, the items of expense would be greatly reduced. But even at the highest figure stated the cost of mapping was far below that entailed by a land expedition.

AIRCRAFT AN AID TO THE FARMER

The Bureau of Entomology has for more than a year, through the courtesy of the U. S. Air Service, prosecuted its work of utilizing aircraft in the discovery of destruction of plant pests and it has met with great success.

In certain notable examples aircraft demonstrated their utility. They were particularly valuable in the scouting work necessary along the long stretches of the Rio Grande, on the Mexican border, where roads are poor and common means of transportation inadequate. They were used by the Bureau in scouting over territory infested by the Japanese beetle in the immediate vicinity of Riverton, N. J., and have enabled the observers to get a much better view of the territory than would be possible on the ground.

The experience gained from these experiments shows conclusively that the airplane can be put to excellent use in supplementing cotton. survey work, particularly in determining the location of cotton fields situated in wooded and sparsely settled country, where they might otherwise escape detection.

AIRPLANE IN MINE RESCUE WORK

The Bureau of Mines in 1920 made preliminary plans for the utilization of aircraft in rescue work by quickly transporting engineers and oxygen apparatus to mine disasters. The U. S. Air Service maintains planes at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, in readiness to assist the Bureau of Mines Safety Station at Vincennes, Ind., in its rescue work.

The Bureau of Mines district engineer at Vincennes is gathering data on possible landing fields near the coal fields where the mine rescue airplanes will be called upon to operate. It is realized that the greatest difficulty confronting such a service is the serious lack of airports and landing fields in that vicinity. To operate with any certainty of success, mine rescue airplanes would require landing fields both at safety headquarters and at the mines.

To supplement the mapping work carried on by the Civil Operations Group of the Army Air Service, the Bureau of Mines engineers have been instructed to compile in the course of their field work comprehensive data on the surface conditions near each mine. visited and map places suitable for landing. This data will be submitted to the Air Service as fast as it accumulates; thus in time comprehensive aerial maps of each mining district will be developed.

CHAPTER V

NEW MARINE USES FOR AIRCRAFT; SEAPLANES NOW "THE EYES OF THE FISHING FLEET"; SEALING OPERATIONS IN THE ARCTIC; U. S. COAST GUARD SAVES LIFE AND PROPERTY AT SEA.

N

EW uses for aircraft over the water, in addition to the transport of goods and passengers, were revealed during 1920. It was discovered during the war that fighting aircraft could discern objects beneath as well as on the surface of the sea and an inevitable development was the fish patrol which, in the few months. of operation during 1920, was responsible for the elimination of much expense and a great increase in the hauls of the Atlantic and Pacific fishing fleets.

Seaplanes that are seaworthy as well as airworthy now form an indispensable unit of the U. S. Coast Guard. At the single station operated during 1920, lives and property were saved by the flying guardsmen and the indications are that specially designed guns on seaplanes may in the future actually shoot lines to shipwrecked vessels or, if of sufficient size, such as the N. C.'s or F.-5's, even alight and remove passengers from the ship's life boats.

AERIAL AID TO FISHERIES

The Bureau of Fisheries, Naval Aviation and Coast Guard were. instrumental during the year in developing fish-spotting to such a degree that commercial aircraft companies and fishing fleets are preparing to extend co-operation which has proved to be mutually beneficial.

It appears that the idea originated in 1919, with the Gloucester, Mass., Board of Trade. Naval Aviation was quick to respond to a request for equipment and experimental observation flights were carried on from Cold Springs Inlet to the Delaware Breakwater, thence to Five Fathom Bank and return. The result was to convince all commercial interests and Government departments concerned.

Since then fish-spotting from the air has been carried on also off the Virginian and Southern California Coasts. The Syd Chaplin aircraft interests, of Los Angeles, operated Curtiss seaplanes

for ten months. Patrols have also been sent out by the Naval Air Station at San Diego. Flights in connection with the menhaden fleets, on the east coast, were made at first through the courtesy of the Naval Air Station at Hampton Roads, Capt. S. H. R. Doyle, commanding, but this work will in the future be done by private companies.

Capt. Doyle's account of 1920 operations is particularly interesting. The C. E. Davis Packing Company, of Fleeton, Va., obtained the assistance of the Navy Department and detailed one of its fishermen to act as spotter in aircraft. The fishermen found that best results, in so far as menhaden were concerned, were obtained at an altitude of three to five hundred feet, although excellent vision was possible as high as three thousand feet.

The daily patrol was established at Hampton Roads on June 14. At 5 A. M. an H. S.-2-L scaplane left the station. The party consisted of pilot, radio operator and spotter. Radio apparatus was also installed on the fishing fleet and a shore station was established at Fleeton.

"In addition to radio," Capt. Doyle reports, "the planes also carried international signal flags, which were flown from the bow of the seaplane, suspended from an eye-bolt and weighted with lead. Squared charts of the coast were divided into sections and these sections into sub-divisions, the sections being lettered and the subdivisions numbered. All fishing vessels and planes were provided with charts of this character.

RADIO REPORTS SCHOOLS OF FISH

"Due to the fact that co-operation was established with firms. who were interested exclusively in catching menhaden, no other kind of fish were sought by the seaplanes although the spotter reported that he was able to easily spot blue and other kind of food. fish.

"Patrols were operated daily with the exception of Sundays and a few other days on which flying and fishing operations were hampered by weather conditions, (mostly low visibility, due to fog and rain) and from this it would seem logical to state that the planes. can operate whenever it is possible for fishing vessels to put their small boats and nets overboard. The patrols averaged four hours in duration.

"At the beginning communication between planes and vessels was carried out entirely by flag signals, but was rather unsatisfactory as planes had to travel, in some cases, a distance of fifty or sixty miles to notify the vessels by flags of the location of schools of fish.

Very good results were later obtained through the medium of radio. "In a great many cases the vessels have been directed to bodies of fish which were within several miles of them and of which they had, apparently, no knowledge. In many instances the entire fishing fleet were found heading directly away from the fish and would, undoubtedly, have lost the entire day if it had not been for the assistance rendered by the plane.

Summing up, it is the opinion at this station that aircraft can be used to great advantage by the fishing industry and that the best type of plane would be similar to the Aeromarine Model 40 or Curtiss M. F., carrying five hours' fuel and radio equipment. The duties of radio operator and spotter could be combined so that only two persons would be necessary to operate the machine. A certain number of vessels in the fishing fleet should be equipped with radio. and a shore radio station should also be established."

NEW AND LUCRATIVE FIELD

The Bureau of Fisheries sees a new and lucrative field in spotting from the air. The Bureau's report, prepared especially for this Year Book is as follows:

"In a general way, a flight over any given region in which fisheries research work is to be carried on, gives the investigator an excellent idea of the character and extent of the region, much more vivid and detailed than any that could be obtained by charts, descriptions, or ordinary means of inspection. It places the natural features of the region in their proper perspective and relation to one another. It makes clear at once the inter-relation of land and water, and the character and extent of tidal currents, which may be distinguished by their color, the eddies along their courses and by their reaction to the wind. Even when the observer considers himself familiar with a given territory, the view from aircraft shows him clearly many things which were either unknown, or imperfectly understood before. And in the case of new territory, observation from aircraft if possible, should be an essential part of fisheries investigation work.

"Besides the general value of such observation, in no other way can such a clear idea be obtained of the abundance or scarcity of fish of schooling species, and the characteristic appearance of the schools, as well as of all other forms of surface life. The location and extent of nets, number and position of fishing craft, and many other things relating to the fisheries, can be thus accurately observed in a mere fraction of the time that would be required in any other way. It is earnestly recommended that workers for the Bureau