454 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1935 



try to solve that great problem worthy of French aviation: the 

 commercial aerial linking of our two continents. 



Let us commence, then, the study of the problem. If we consider 

 the component elements of all transport — (1) speed, (2) economy, 

 (3) frequence, (4) regularity, (5) safety — we see immediately that 

 on all these points transoceanic aviation is rapidly coming to out- 

 distance all the other means of transportation. 



SPEED 



It is undeniable that the airplane can now make 250 to 300 kilo- 

 meters an hour, thus joining Europe to America in 16 to 20 hours. 

 There is therefore no need to insist on this point. 



ECONOMY 



Maritime companies, under the influence of international com- 

 petition, are forced to build enormous floating palaces more and 

 more expensive and more and more comfortable, but of which the 

 cost runs into astronomical figures. Modern steamships such as the 

 Queen Mary and the Normandie cost more than 800,000,000 francs, 

 which for a total of 2,000 passengers represents for each passenger a 

 capital of 400,000 francs, whereas for an airplane this same capital 

 would be in the neighborhood of 100,000 francs. As an airplane 

 travels four times faster and hence can cross the ocean two or three 

 times a week, while a steamship can make the crossing only two or 

 three times a month, we can see how much greater would be the 

 return on the capital involved in the case of the airplane, and this 

 in spite of the difference in amortizement. 



It appears that at present we are seeing a sudden change in the 

 technique of transportation. We are struck by the importance of 

 dead weight necessary in providing for the comfort of the passengers. 

 In de luxe trains the transportation of a traveler represents a dead 

 weight of several tons, and the coefficient of utilization is perhaps 

 even less than 2 percent. This coefficient is reduced to II/2 percent or 

 even less in the great steamships. Thus it is seen why we seek to 

 obtain a better result and why we come to busses or to automobiles, 

 which transport a useful load in the neighborhood of 20 percent, 

 with therefore a decrease in the cost per kilometer. 



While on the subject of economy, I would like to bring out here 

 the role of dead weight in aviation, a role entirely different from 

 that in terrestrial or marine transportation. To transport passengers 

 means, in the first case, to transport a certain weight; and in the 

 second case to overcome the air resistance of the railway coach or 

 of the cabin, of which the design is conditioned by the exigencies 

 of comfort. 



