Shulman, Jack M.

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 The Knowledge Bank at The Ohio State University Ohio State Engineer Title:  The Air Transport Picture Creators:  Shulman, Jack M. Issue Date:  Feb-1938 Publisher:  Ohio State University, College of Engineering Citation:  Ohio State Engineer, vol. 21, no. 3 (February, 1938), 8-11. URI:  http://hdl.handle.net/1811/35469 Appears in Collections: Ohio State Engineer: Volume 21, no. 3 (February, 1938)   THE AIR TRANSPORT PICTUREBy J. M. SHULMANCourtesy American Airlines.Nightly coast-to-coast on all transcontinental airroutes—Douglas Sleeper Transports.THIS Spring will witness commercial aviation inAmerica emerging from one of the most tryingphases in its history. The brief but intensivehistory of the air transport industry is almost a para-dox. Few business enterprises if any can show aspeedier or a more phenomenal growth in the pastten years, nor, on the other hand, have there beenmany forced to undergo such severe trials and tribula-tions as this industry has met time and again in itsefforts to build itself up to the point where a returncan be realized on a tremendous investment.In spite of all the adversities experienced and allthe obstructions in the way of its advancement, theairline industry today has more to show for its effortsthan any other transportation industry has ever shownin an equivalent period of time since its beginning.Each year of airline history has seen large percentageincreases over the preceding year in the total routemileage of commercial airways, the number of pas-sengers carried, and the amounts of air mail and airexpress flown. The enterprise as a whole has devel-oped from a nucleus of a few far-seeing individualsand a few airplanes into a vast industrial system em-ploying thousands of people and taking its rightfulplace among the major transportation industries.One of the brightest parts of the airline picture to-day is the technological state of the art of commercialflying. Technical obstacles have loomed up in everystep of the expansion process, but none of them hasproven too difficult to solve. One has only to read thecurrent aviation magazines to realize that notwith-standing the progress already made, never have tech-nical research and development in aviation been car-ried on as intensively by so many different bodies asthey are today. Engineers of the army and navy,airline engineers, and those in the equipment manu-facturing industries, never satisfied with the "bestthere is" at any given time, are ceaselessly engaged inimproving equipment. Amounts of money all out ofproportion to conventional research appropriations inother industries are expended in the never-ending driveto make air transportation safer, more comfortable forpassengers, and more reliable.Tangible results are to be expected from such aprogressive technical policy, and they are being real-ized constantly. Each year of the last five has seennew improved machines go into regular airline service,accompanied by numerous improvements in auxiliaryequipment, navigation aids, and airport facilities. Withevery such technological advance the standards ofsafety, comfort, and convenience of air transportationhave been raised.To mention safety in connection with air traveltoday is to touch a live coal which only recently hasbeen made more live than ever by vivid newspaperaccounts of aviation accidents. American newspapersare not to be criticized for presenting such news to thepublic as news. The deplorable fact is that as far ascommercial aviation is concerned the trite saying that"All we know is what we read in the papers" is all tootrue for the majority of people. Content with whatthe newspapers have to say, this same majority goesno further in attempting to obtain facts, but insteadproceeds to draw immediate conclusions in its ownminds as to whether or not air travel is safe.It is an old contention that air travel cannot becompared with automobile transportation with regardto relative number of accidents, since use of the auto-mobile is so much more widespread. Certain factswhich compare increments with increments in thetwo industries make this argument too weak to baseany conclusions on. As the use of automobiles hasincreased over the period of time since they were in-vented, the number of auto accidents has increasedvery nearly in direct proportion to the increase in theamount of their use. The record of commercial avia-tion indicates that the number of airplane accidentsPage 8 T H E OHIO STATE ENGINEERSkylounge type air transports—the utmost in passenger comfortfor day flight.—Courtesy United Air Lines.has consistently decreased in ratio to the very largeincrease in the amount of transport flying in the periodsince it was first inaugurated."Air travel today is much safer than the familyautomobile," reads a statement in a pamphlet issuedby a large transcontinental airline. The statistics onwhich the above facts are based prove this statementto be very much the truth, and not to believe it is justas unreasonable as to believe you are entirely safe be-hind the wheel of your car. The very fact that anaviation accident constitutes front-page news atteststo the comparative uncommonness of such occurrences.Imagine the situation if every fatal automobile acci-dent were given a front-page headline!Be these things as they may, commercial aviationis still faced with the huge intangible task of obtainingpublic confidence. This confidence is something whichcannot be built up on statistics of relative safety, noris it something which will "just grow" as long as thelarge majority of people go along knowing little moreabout the airline industry than what appears on thefront page of the newspaper. Confidence can be in-spired only where knowledge and understanding exist.To educate the public to the degree where it will notonly be willing to travel by air but will prefer to doso is at present one of the greatest problems confront-ing the airlines, one much more difficult than anythingtechnical and requiring much more time and effort forits solution.A peculiar circumstance which airlines face in re-gard to lack of cooperation on the part of otheragencies engaged in parallel technical development andresearch is not encouraging to the airline picture. Arecent situation relative to the navy illustrates whatthe airlines are sometimes up against. The navy hasdeveloped and perfected a device which takes bear-ings by radio on a plane in the air simultaneously fromseveral ground stations. By means of its use a pilotcan request and obtain his exact position by radio intwo or three minutes time. Obviously, such an inven-tion would be of inestimable value in air transport use.However, the navy forbids commercial use of the de-vice—calls it a military secret. The fact that airlinetechnicians have independently worked out an almostidentical system does not affect the situation; they areprohibited from using what they have. Military policyis unquestionably of great importance, but there issomething wrong when military secrets are allowed tohinder the sound growth of so vital an industry as airtransportation.From an economic standpoint the air transportpicture has generally not been optimistic. Stockholdershave been footing the bill for the progress made inaviation, and that state of affairs must be remediedjust as soon as possible. This situation is laid in alarge part to unsatisfactory payment for carrying themail. Here again the industry has not been gettingthe cooperation from the government which it deservesand needs for its financial strengthening.Colonel Edgar S. Gorrell, president of the AirTransport Association of America, appealed before ahouse appropriations sub-committee in January for anair mail appropriation of $19,250,000 for the year1939. The appropriations committee recommended$15,800,000 in the annual treasury-post office supplybill. "The results," in Colonel Gorrell's words, "if nocorrective measure be applied, are bound to be a pro-nounced retrogression in America's air-transportationservice."Undoubtedly the government has its side of thestory. However, in the history of American railroadsand the merchant marine, when crises arose in theseFebruary, 1938 Page 9industries of the nature that exists in air transport to-day, the government gave unhesitatingly in the matterof financial aid. Airlines are not asking for directfinancial assistance. All they ask is the reasonablerequest that they be paid adequately for carrying themail. It is difficult to justify lack of government sup-port of air lines to this extent. To pay the airlinessatisfactorily for air mail service is both in the publicinterest and in the interest of the government.Facing the airlines is the necessity of establishingstandard fare rates. In this regard governmental regu-lation is invited by the industry instead of being foughtoff, as is the case today in most business. ColonelGorrell in his annual report of the Air Transport As-sociation last December asked for the creation of an"I. C. C. of the air." Specifically he urged federalcontrol of rates, of all new financing and consolida-tions, and a system of certificates of convenience andnecessity similar to that now in effect in railroads andcertain other public utilities, and suggested a "non-political, permanent agency of government" for thecarrying out of these plans.This appears to be a logical and sensible way tocorrect a detrimental condition. Unrestrained com-petition in the air transport industry is much morelikely to result in permanent injury to the industry asBoarding an airliner.Over New York; one of United'sMainliners speeds swiftly overthis great metropolis in comfortand safety.•—Courtesy United Air Lines.a whole than in permanent good. Leaders in aviationare wise to seek reasonable federal regulation insteadof allowing their enterprise to approach a state wherethis regulation will be forced upon them.One of the large transcontinental airlines hasadopted an admirable spirit of candor in dealing withthe public by the issuance of a pamphlet describing indetail its operations policies and giving specific an-swers to the question, "What is being done to bringstill greater safety to air travel?" Since the operationspolicies and safety measures of all airlines are of—Courtesy Braniff Airways.—Courtesy TWA, Inc.The famous Automatic Gyro Pilot is effectivelya "third pilot".necessity much alike, this pamphlet and other adver-tising material of its type do more to instill public con-fidence in the airlines than a much greater amount ofthe more flashy advertising and publicity could do.A good sign is the recent trend of the airlines towardeducational advertising in newspapers and magazines,and away from the more competitive and flashy type.Until fairly recently a good deal of the air trans-port advertising did not make much mention of thesafety factor in air travel, or if it did such mentionseemed to have been subdued in the background, asif something almost to be taken for granted. Pas-senger comfort and convenience were and still right-fully are items to stress. However, this operationspamphlet brings out in positive and unmistakablePage 10 T H E OHIO STATE ENGINEERterms that safety always is the first factor in the dis-patching and flying of planes. Passenger comfort israted as the second consideration and schedule per-formance the third.With the explanation of revised minimum flightaltitudes to be adhered to henceforth, there is definitereason to hope and to believe that the aviation night-mare of an airliner crashing into a mountainside isnow a thing of the past. Airlines which operate overmountainous terrain are requiring their planes tomaintain flight levels considerably in excess of themargin required by federal regulation, so that theywill clear the highest point of land for an airwaywidth of from 50 to more than 100 miles by a distanceof over half a mile. Maintenance of prescribed flightaltitudes is rigidly enforced, and an automatic record-ing barograph in each plane is being used to providea continuous positive check.Flight planning and dispatching of scheduledflights are two of the most vital airline operations.Thoroughness and the most careful consideration ofevery factor relative to complete safety are character-istic of the manner in which every airline requires itsflights to be planned and dispatched. Pilots and dis-patchers must both make a complete study and analy-sis of the complete weather information at their dis-posal, and both must agree that the weather is flyablewith complete safety before any flight is ever at-tempted. The idea that any pilot of any airline isever "pushed" to make a flight against his better judg-ment is too ridiculous for consideration. If all phasesof flight planning and dispatching operations wereunderstood by the public, many of the fears anddoubts so prevalent today would no longer exist.When weather conditions are not favorable for aflight, the flight is either held on the ground at itspoint of origin or en route for an improvement inweather, or it is cancelled. An apologetic attitude I;JSbeen the characteristic one assumed by the airlines inexplaining delays and flight cancellations to pas-—Courtesy TWA, Inc.Weather maps and data—all-important factorsin flight control.sengers, inasmuch as passenger comfort and conven-ience may be sacrificed somewhat whenever such ac-tion is necessary. It is to the credit of the airlines,however, that their general policy is to inform pas-sengers straightforwardly before a flight as to the pos-sibility of delays or cancellation because of weather,and to explain to them in a frank manner that anysuch action is positively in the interest of the pas-sengers' safety. Complete weather information is al-ways available to passengers and others on request atairline operations and traffic offices.Past history and present facts point toward a fu-ture of certain increasing expansion for the air trans-port industry. Public confidence will probably lagbehind technical progress for a considerable time yet,but gradually the inertia of public reluctance will beovercome, by education more than any other singleelement. As people become more and more educatedon the facts of commercial aviation they will come tosee it in the same light that those see it who are inti-mately connected with the industry in their daily lives;as a vast enterprise in which hundreds of airlinersdaily take off, fly, and land at their destinations withthe regularity and uneventfulness characteristic of anefficient, reliable public service.February, 1938 Page 11

The Air Transport Picture

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