Something I've always wanted to do, is fly to the west coast by airplane, return by train to compare the cost and time involved in the two transport services. Harry "Min" Bullers, Warsaw vet, did just that.

Harry left Indianapolis at 10:45 o'clock at night, landed in Los Angeles, California, at 10:15 o'clock the next morning. The big, four-engine plane he was riding made four stops enroute. They landed at Kansas City, Strong, Kansas; Phoenix and Albuquerque.

"Min" said that the 100 miles just east of Phoenix, was the most beautiful scenery he has ever seen. The giant ship was drifting lazily along at 6,000 feet, slightly more than one mile high, as they crossed Arizona.

The ship rose to 11,000 feet to cross the western mountain range. At that altitude, he could catch only an occasional glimpse of the ground beneath, said it seemed the ship hung motionless in the air.

 

When he arrived in Los Angeles, Harry had spent $111.38 which included everything on the 11 hour twenty-minute trip.

Before leaving Indiana, he checked further and discovered that for $119.30 he could leave Chicago and fly non-stop to Los Angeles in six and one-half hours. Harry chose the "slower," 11-hour trip for the experience of the stops in Missouri, Kansas and New Mexico.

While in California, he visited his sister-in-law, Mrs. Fred Craig, formerly of Pierceton, and spent a few hours in San Diego, with Mr. and Mrs. Gus DeFord.

On the return trip, Mr. Bullers boarded a train in Los Angeles at seven o'clock on a Friday night, did not arrive in Warsaw until 5:30 o'clock Tuesday evening. He was three nights and two days enroute. He paid $56.11 for this ticket and bought all his meals on the train. The cheapest meal cost him $1.65 and his most expensive check was for $3.50. The average price he paid to tuck his feet under the table was $2.50 per.

Meals, tips and time lost amounted to more than his airplane ticket. So there you are--the comparison between the two methods of travel. By plane you could leave Indianapolis or Chicago this evening and be in Los Angeles tomorrow morning. Or, if you are in a real hurry, you may leave Chicago at breakfast time, arrive in Los Angeles for lunch the same day.

I admit a slight prejudice!

ILS and CGA
It was a coincidence, when I was invited to the Strand theater one night this week to see a news reel. Sky Writing had come out a few hours earlier with a discussion of Instruments Landing Systems and Controlled Ground Approach, for foggy flying. Manager Ralph Boice read the article, stepped to the phone and called me: "Bill, our news reel tonight shows just what you are talking about." I saw it and it did. Thanks, Ralph.

I have a healthy respect for bankers. (I have, too). I'm particularly interested in what the National City Bank of New York has to say about the aircraft industry. You read it--it is offered without comment:

"Within our lifetime, the heavier-than-air flying machine has reduced travel times from months to hours, eliminated frontiers and revolutionized warfare.

The road the industry has traveled in the past thirty-five years is well illustrated by a comparison between the "stick and wire" plane sold by the Wright brothers to the United State army in 1909 and today's giant B-29. Yet even the B-29 is now obsolete.

The American aircraft industry is easily the largest in the world. Since the war it has experienced a drastic contraction: nevertheless, the value of the 36,200 planes made last year, and parts, was approximately $500,000,000.

During the first postwar year the American aircraft industry exported about $115,000,000 worth of planes, engines and accessories. The largest customers were western Europe, Mexico, South America, China and Australia."

Warsaw Daily Times, Fri. Dec. 5, 1947

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