How Aviation Grew

The world learned from World War I, which ended in 1918

, how much could be done with aviation and how great its possibilities were. Every year aircraft was improved. Speed records toppled. Planes stayed in the air longer, They flew greater distances. They carried more passengers. In the United States, an army officer named General William Mitchell, known as "Billy" Mitchell, saw how important aviation would be in future wars. He proved that bombs from an airplane could sink a battleship. He pleaded for government support of aviation. But higher-ranking officers would not believe him.

They forced him to resign from the Army. It took years for the United States to catch up with other countries in plans for military planes. But businessmen were not wholly blind to the possibilities of aviation. Commercial aviation really began in the United States when air mail was introduced in 1926. (Army planes had carried mail as early as 1918.) The first regularly scheduled passenger service was begun in 1926, between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Los Angeles, California. (Zeppelins had carried passengers in Germany as early as 1910.) The first commercial airline in the United States, Pan American Airways, began operations in 1927. The first coastto- coast service in the United States dates from 1929; but a passenger had to take a train from New York to Ohio, fly from Ohio to Oklahoma, take another train to New Mexico, and fly from there to Los Angeles. The time, 48 hours, beat the railroads but still does not compare with the nonstop flights of the 1950s, made in less than seven hours.

The first flights across the Atlantic Ocean were made in 1919. First, a plane of the United States Navy, the NC-4, commanded by Albert C. Read, flew from New York to Newfoundland, to the Azores, and to Portugal in Europe. The same year two British fliers, John Alcock and A. W. Brown, flew from Newfoundland to Ireland, nonstop- the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic. Pan American Airways began commercial flying between the United States and South America in 1930. The flight that did the most, by fat to make the world wake up to thi possibilities of aviation was the nonstoj flight made by Charles Lindbergh fron New York to Paris, France, in 1927 It took him 33 hours, he covered 3,6l( miles, and he flew all alone. Amelii Earhart was the first woman pilot t( fly across the Atlantic, in 1932.

A group of four planes of the Unitec States Army flew all around the work in 1924; it took them 175 days. Ir 1931 Wiley Post and Harold Gatt) did it in eight days. In 1949 a Unitec States Army B-50, commanded by Jame; Gallagher, flew around the world non stop, refueling four times. It took therr 3 days, 22 hours, and 1 minute. Major Charles E. Yeager, in 1947, became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. He did it in an experimental rocket plane, the Bell XS- 1, and his top speed was more than 1,000 miles an hour. A rocket plane also set an altitude record in 1953 by reaching a height of more than 80,000 feet. By the end of World War II there was no doubt that aviation had become! as important in modern life as the automobile fifty years before. There are more than 500,000 registered pilots in the United States. The aviation industry has built more than 500,000 planes, and has become one of the chief industries.

by: David Bunch

POST COMMENT

Goair: Best Low Cost Carrier In Aviation Industry Job Prospects With Aviation Industry Vision Shopsters: Aviation in the EU ETS Goair: Best low cost carrier in aviation industry Powered Paragliding An Ultralight Aviation Job Prospects with Aviation Industry Jet Konnect - A Low Cost Airline That Offers Luxury At Affordable Prices Will Air India Be Able To Come Out Of This Situation Special Offer For Cheap Goa Packages Book Cheap Flights: The Comfortable Way Of Enjoying Holidays Jet Airways Ensures Inexpensive Air Ticket Booking Special Offers For Christmas And New Year For Cheap Flights To Bangkok Virgin Atlantic Airlines