88 Miracles Ahead! 



a root weevil attacking hemp. Planes also bring back wounded 

 men from combat zones. Several seriously wounded men were 

 transported from India to Washington in five days, a distance 

 of more than ten thousand miles. 



The Naval Air Transport Service 



The Naval Air Transport Service, like the ATC, borrowed 

 much of its personnel and operating procedure from com- 

 mercial air lines. The NATS is operating several hundred 

 planes, including many flying boats, over fifty thousand route 

 miles. The most marked difference between the Army and 

 Navy transport services is in the Navy's use of flying boats 

 for cargo and personnel transport including the evacuation 

 of wounded from battle areas. 



Strange cargoes also are carried by NATS tons of rubber 

 seeds from Liberia for planting in South America, blood 

 plasma to New Guinea in three or four days. One of the 

 NATS's outstanding jobs is transporting repair parts to battle- 

 damaged submarines in distant waters, thus permitting them 

 to get back in action in a few days instead of being idle for 

 a month or more. 



Speedier Loading Techniques 



William A. Lippman, Jr., former manager of freight and 

 express for Western Air Lines, feels that "for obvious rea- 

 sons" the three or four cargo types now being produced for 

 the military will form the equipment backlog for air-freight 

 operators for a considerable period after the war. 



He warns, however, that the operator "who, by virtue of 

 a desire to be first in the field, finds himself with a fleet of 

 -46, C-47, or C-54 planes will find difficulty in bringing his 

 costs into line with the public demand for competitive air 



