plane--a
triumph of organized effort by the navy. At the same time all over the
world flights took place with astounding frequency which illustrated,
as little else could, the certain future of aviation. Seas, mountains,
deserts, places otherwise almost impassable were traversed with ease
and speed.

Army fliers flew from the Atlantic to the Pacific within a few months
of the signing of the armistice. It required but fifty hours of
flying-time, just a fraction over two days. At that time no attempt
was made to obtain speed, as the purpose of the trip had been to
locate landing-fields and make aerial maps for future transcontinental
flights.

The four planes that made this trip might be considered as the
pioneers of vast flocks of airplanes which within a short time will be
winging their way from coast to coast. If, with machines built
specifically for war purposes and with no special landing-fields or
routes laid out, aviators could successfully travel from one coast to
the other in fifty hours of flying-time, how much more rapidly will
future trips be made when special touring-planes have been developed,
routes and landing-fields are laid out, repair-shops are built, and
the trip becomes a matter of routine rather than aerial experiments.

The effect that this new method of travel will have on American life
and development is staggering to the imagination. San Francisco and
New York will be almost neighbors, while Chicago and New Orleans will
be but a pleasant day's trip apart. The business man, the statesman,
and even the courier can be transported from one end of the country to
the other, independent of steel rails and other devices, in record
time.

Such experiments have already proved successful in Europe. The British
Foreign Office in London, anxious to keep in close touch with the
Peace Conference at Paris, turned to the airplane to assure quick
transportation of men and documents. The slow train trip with the
irksome transfer to and from the Channel steamer and the more irksome
voyage across the Channel itself, were avoided by a special service
through the air. Thus two great capitals were brought within a few
hours' time of each other, which greatly facilitated the vital
negotiations under way.

Civilians were finally granted the right to make the trip under
military supervision. Fourteen passengers were transported from Paris
to London in two hours and forty minutes as against six hours and
forty minut