AIRSHIPS AND AIRPLANES 



309 



Other lines of progress. Each year sees a new record 

 established in the height attained by airplanes. In 1919 

 Captain Schroeder of the United States Army Air Service 

 ascended to a height of 28,900 feet. This is about the same 

 as the height of Mt. Everest, the highest mountain in the 

 world. Still more recently an Englishman is reported to 

 have reached a height of 30,000 feet. 



Greater weights are being carried, and airplanes are now 

 made to carry a number of passengers. A Curtis seaplane 



FIG. 124. English military biplane. 



recently carried 50 passengers. Some airplanes can carry 

 10,000 pounds in excess of their own weight. 



Progress is also being made in safeguarding air travel. 

 The serious accident, excepting with war planes, is now 

 the exception. The Aero Club in France made an inves- 

 tigation, which showed that during 1912 only one fatal 

 accident occurred for every 92,000 miles flown. 



Airplanes in war. Even before the great European War, 

 the leading nations had spent large sums of money on air- 

 planes, and the airplane branch was an important adjunct 



