Night Mail: A Flying Dream to be Realized 



A letter mailed in New York at night 

 will reach Chicago the next morning 



It searchlights of about eignt tnousana candlepower eqiiipped with acetylene gas tanks 

 were used at each emergency station, the pilot would not be likely to lose his way 



THE day is not far distant when you 

 may drop a letter down the chute in 

 New York and be confident of its 

 d*elivery in Chicago the next morning. 



The flights of Ruth Law and Victor Carl- 

 strom have afforded ample proof that a 

 New York-Chicago mail service by aero- 

 plane is feasible. The Post Office Depart- 

 ment is actually considering an air-line 

 mail-service between the two cities. It is 

 estimated that the trips can be made in 

 from six to fourteen hours, depending upon 

 the wind, and that the average flying time 

 for the seven hundred and twenty miles will 

 be eight hours. The distance by rail is 

 about one thousand miles. 



Definite plans for the maintenance on a 

 regular schedule of this air trunk-line for 

 the mail have been proposed. One plan 

 involves emergency stations every twenty- 

 two miles, each equipped with powerful 



lights. In addition, two landing and one 

 relay station are also planned. The aero- 

 planes would leave the two termini at six 

 o'clock in the evening and deliver the mail 

 before nine o'clock the following morning. 

 Under the most favorable conditions it 

 would reach Chicago by midnight. 



Leaving New York at dusk, the aeroplane 

 mail-carrier would follow the lights at the 

 emergency stations to the first landing 

 station, which would be in the vicinity of 

 Williamsport, Pa. There, at a flying field 

 equipped with hangars, tools and spare 

 parts, he would stop for oil and gasoline, 

 and would then continue to a relay station 

 near Niles, Ohio. Here another machine 

 would finish the flight, landing near Napo- 

 leon, Ohio. Powerful searchlights would 

 mark the emergeney stations and special 

 lighting systems would illuminate the flying 

 fields, even in foggy weather. 



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