Other Commercial Uses of Aircraft

OTHER COMMERCIAL USES OF AIRCRAFT There are many kinds of work that can be done by aircraft more rapidly and at least as cheaply as by less up-to-date trans port. The first steps were taken in Canada where aircraft have taken a constantly increasing share of the work of survey and forest fire protection. The United States uses the aeroplane as a destroyer of insect pests in the cotton fields, one machine in the air replacing 4o men on the ground. Russia attacks the plague of locusts by similar means. A company in British Guiana finds it worth while to keep a seaplane as an ambulance, whilst aeroplanes are employed for ambulance work in Australia.

Air Survey.—Aerial survey came into existence during the World War. The necessity of photographing trench-lines and hostile positions became more and more vital as operations pro gressed, and by 1918 military aerial photography had reached a high pitch of efficiency. It was only in a few cases, however, that it was necessary to employ aerial photography as a means of measuring distances on the ground ; as a rule, comparatively ac curate maps were available, and the photographs were required for filling in details of natural features, buildings, roads, etc., and for disclosing the dispositions of the enemy.

At the end of the war it was clear that aerial photography must provide a very valuable aid to ordinary survey, and from that date onwards aerial survey has been very successfully developed in various parts of the world.

Canada has been the pioneer of air surveying. Her vast and comparatively flat northern regions offered an ideal field for the young enterprise to prove its commercial value. Operations have for the most part been carried out by flying-boats working from the numerous lakes and waterways which intersect large ex panses of unsurveyed forest land.

Two systems have been employed : vertical photography aided by certain points previously fixed by triangulation ; and oblique photography along a line already traversed by means of ground survey.

Without doubt enough air survey work has been successfully carried out to demonstrate that this type of work has become a decided factor in the development of the British Empire. The most obvious demand for air survey is in regions where ordinary means of transport present serious obstacles to the ground sur veyor. Such regions are often of immense value on account of their timber products, as in Canada, or mineral deposits, as in Rhodesia. The air photograph is also of real value to the geolo gist, the forestry officer, the railway engineer, the irrigation engi neer, the draining engineer, the town-planning department, the de partment of agriculture, the archaeologist and the medical officer.

The point has long been reached where air survey can stand on its own legs, and it is only necessary now to obtain large con tracts to maintain it as a really important and prosperous na tional industry. Practical experience has proved that under a great many conditions air survey saves a vast amount of time and a very appreciable amount of money as compared with ordinary methods.

In France, a law demanding accurate plans of all fair-sized municipalities led to much activity in the survey of towns. In Germany, forest survey has been carried out extensively and suc cessfully, and great progress has been made in solving the scien tific problems connected with stereoscopic plotting and the aerial photography of mountain tracts. The United States has followed Canada in aerial survey progress. Her operations have included oil surveys, coast-line and river surveys, the alignment of new roads and railways, municipal surveys and town-planning.

Modern Aerial Photography.

Aerial photography has an established place in various branches of commerce and adver tising. In connection with engineering works, building contracts and land development, air photographs provide a valuable and comparatively inexpensive check on progress. For advertising purposes air photographs of factories, estates, hotels and seaside resorts are in constant demand. Municipal authorities have used aerial photography in drawing up plans for town improvements, river authorities have used them for studying currents and the siting of bridges, whilst traffic authorities have proved their value in investigating the baffling problems of road congestion.

Owing to the effects produced in a photograph by variations in the contour, colour and texture of a surface, air photographs often reveal features of interest to archaeologists. The riddle of the avenues at Stonehenge was solved by an air photograph that showed extraordinarily clearly the course of the ancient paths, of which no trace appeared to be visible on the ground. Similarly, under colonial conditions aerial photography is probably the cheapest and certainly the quickest method available for the in vestigation of schemes of development. Since extreme accuracy as to scale is immaterial, the technical difficulties of air survey do not arise.

Forest Fire Protection.

Experience in Canada has shown that in certain circumstances aircraft patrols are the most efficient method of controlling the fire hazard in forests. The greatest efficiency is reached in areas where population is sparse and ground forces cannot be fully organized.

During the forest fire season, constant air patrols have been maintained over important areas, and fires are reported by wire less to fire-fighting stations; in some cases, the fire-fighting parties and apparatus are actually carried to the site of the fire in aircraft. Enormous tracts of timber have been saved by this means. It has been recorded that 90% of the fires do not spread over more than loo acres, owing largely to the fact that as soon as the fire is detected men are placed in a position to control it immediately.

The making of inventories and surveys of the forests is com bined with fire protection, and in this way the patrols serve a double purpose. Until the introduction of air photography, sur vey in the forest regions was all but impossible owing to the difficulty and expense of ground operations. The use of aircraft, therefore, assists the conservation of the forest wealth not merely from destruction by fire but also from uneconomic exploitation.

Protection of Cotton and Other Crops.

The idea of utiliz ing aeroplanes as a means of spraying poison dust on cotton plants, fruit trees and crops generally in order to destroy insect pests was demonstrated in the United States as early as 1921. This method has been developed to a commercial stage and many thousands of acres are treated annually. The poison used is finely powdered calcium arsenate.

On large and favourably situated fields more than 500 acres per hour are treated. Under the most favourable conditions more than r,000 acres per hour can be treated. The method of applying the dust is a comparatively simple one. The "dust" is carried in a hopper on the aeroplane and discharged at an even rate under the control of the pilot. Each run of the aeroplane across the field dusts a strip up to 25o feet wide at a speed of Ioo miles per hour. One slow aeroplane can dust 45 acres a minute, which is equal to the work of 4o cart dusting machines.

The principal advantage of aeroplane dusting is the speed at which it works. No sooner is an infestation of insects detected than the whole area, perhaps many thousand acres in extent, can be treated with poison in a few hours. To obtain the same result by the old method would necessitate the maintenance of a large force of men and dusting machines and would be economically unsound. A very substantial increase in yield is secured by effective "dusting" and the air method has been supplanting the old method wherever the territory is favourable for its use. The utility of air dusting is naturally greatest where the fields are large, flat and free from obstructions.

Ambulance and Medical Duties.

In undeveloped countries where methods of transport are elementary, and particularly in countries where tropical diseases are prevalent, great difficulty is experienced in counteracting outbreaks of disease and rendering medical attention to the sick.

Aircraft have already been the means of saving a number of lives by carrying medical assistance to people stricken down with sickness, or by transporting cases of dangerous illness to hospital when the hardships of ordinary travel would prove fatal. For instance, in one case when an epidemic of typhoid fever had been reported, the doctor by using aircraft, was able to reach the scene with supplies of antitoxin in the space of hours instead of the two or three days which would have been occupied by the ordinary means of transport. In British Guiana a seaplane was fitted up as an ambulance for the transport of fever patients from up-country plantations to the hospital at Georgetown; a journey which formerly took from 17 to 21 days can be made in less than two hours.

In Australia more and more use is being made of aircraft to assist doctors and nurses in reaching regions where ordinary methods of transport are primitive, if they exist at all; the result being that a man who would hesitate to take his family out of reach of medical aid knows that in case of need he can obtain help promptly.

Several aircraft constructors have built machines specially fitted out as ambulances and complete with surgical equipment.

Policing by Air.

Aircraft are considerably used for helping the officers of the law. Canada has important salmon fisheries on her west coast where policing by aircraft has been conducted in a very effective manner. The main offences against fishing regulations are fishing with two great length of net or nets of illegal mesh, fishing during the week-end closed season, fishing in restricted areas, and fishing without a licence. Numerous offenders have been detected and it soon became clear that the authorities were determined to have the laws strictly enforced. Denmark is another country to use aircraft in this manner, and the United States equips certain of her coastguard stations with seaplanes for routine patrol duties.

Several countries have employed aircraft in order to check the movements of smugglers attempting to land prohibited goods, par ticularly drugs and liquor. In Canada successful and interesting results have been secured. The smuggling of drugs from ships when about to enter Vancouver harbour was well known to the Canadian Government. Members of the crew or passengers had devised a successful method of evading the customs examination by throwing overboard buoyed packages of drugs at selected spots where they were picked up by launches and landed secretly. Owing to the speed of these launches, it proved a difficult matter to catch them. In order to combat this illicit traffic certain incom ing liners from the Orient were unexpectedly escorted by aircraft and the risks of detection were so increased that the smuggling stopped.

The aircraft were also used for customs "raids" on vessels suspected of carrying illicit cargo, a thorough examination being made before the goods could be disposed of. A similar use was made of aircraft in enforcing the former prohibition laws of the United States.

Passenger Transport.

There are still people who have not flown, and "joy-riding" concerns which offer "flips" at popular rates continue to operate. They form a large branch of civil aviation, and through their efficient operation and record of safety they have done a most valuable service by creating interest and confidence in flying.

Previous to 1929 the American "gipsy flier" was a figure of romance. Unhampered by any restrictions and with an enormous territory to rove in, some hundreds of these young men carried on the adventurous life of flying nomads, picking up a living from town to town and keeping their machines in the air more by faith than by the resources of engineering. Some of the foremost Amer ican pilots, however, emerged to renown from the "barnstorming" field.

Air Taxi Service.

There are many operators of aircraft who specialize in flights at short notice for urgent missions. The news paper press and cinematograph industry make frequent use of aircraft for hastening the arrival in key cities of photographs and films of important events and place great reliance upon this form of rapid transport. There is an established seasonal traffic in newspapers to the nearer Continental seaside resorts, as only by using the air can English newspapers be delivered to these places on the morning of issue. Flights with belated passengers to Southampton and Cherbourg to catch outgoing liners have been common.

These are examples of the ordinary daily routine of an air taxi service. Frequently a business man will require a machine to take him on a fast tour round the European capitals, or even further afield. Planes have been chartered for business trips from Lon don and Continental Europe to various points in the East, and travelers in America often resort to hired aircraft to carry them about the United States, in which country in 1934 more than thirty million miles of "taxi" flying was completed.

The "drive yourself" idea of renting motor cars was spreading rapidly in the field of fixed base flying operations. Hundreds of American operators found they could rent planes to amateur pilots for occasional flights or cross-country tours, and this business showed much promise of development.

Typical of the sightseeing service rendered by many companies in various parts of the world was that rendered by an American operator in Arizona who flew on a regular schedule over the Grand Canyon; another operator featured the beautiful sight of New York from the air by night ; other lines ran from the mainland to nearby island resorts.

Sportsmen make great use of chartered planes, particularly in trips to major competitive spectacles, such as championship prize fights, international boat racing such as the Harmsworth contest, big collegiate football contests, horse racing and other events of similar nature. The cost for this sort of charter when taken exclusively by a single group runs high, but wherever there are patrons there are also operators ready to go anywhere on short notice.

Advertising.

Aircraft have proved effective in advertising. The writing of words in the sky is a British invention that has been used extensively. The aircraft used are fast single-seaters which are equipped with a chemical "smoke" generating appara tus of patented design from which a thick stream of white or coloured "smoke" is emitted as the pilot traces out the letters. The work calls for considerable skill on the part of the pilot. He has to keep his letters in line and equal in size over a group perhaps eight miles long, and unless he is quick the first letters will fade before the last are finished.

Aeroplanes and autogyros towing long lettered banners stream ing out behind have also been used extensively in advertising, notably over great centres of population and over huge stadia where crowds gather for outdoor sporting events. Planes have also carried powerful amplifying equipment through which an an nouncer from the sky bawled out praises for commercial products, but this practice met with such public disfavor that it did not remain long in use.