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HON. PHELPS PHELPS. WMCA. PAGE THREE  "TRAVEL BY AIR TODAY" 2

main structure of the plane is inspected more thoroughly at this period than at any other time. The fairings are removed and a corrosion inspection is made of internal surfaces. The beginning of any electrolitic action is closely watched, cables are stretched and landing gear bolts inspected. For the first time the plane's soundproofing is also inspected and repaired by an engineer.

Only four hours are now required to change a motor. One of the most unusual features of the maintenance routine is that no two motors on any one plane have the same number of hours between overhaul. As a safety factor they are staggered according to time in the air with a lapse of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty hours. 

Maintenance crews of the airlines are made up of engine and airplane inspectors. Each crew has a chief who checks work done on plane and motor against work sheets before released from the shop. All men are licensed by the Department of Commerce for engines and planes but a great number of the experts who maintain the big clippers of the skies, have licenses for both planes and engines. 

So you see my friends, there is no ship, locomotive, or automotive bus that gets this care that the big air liner of today gets, and in addition to all of this minute looking after, as soon as any improvement is discovered in the laboratories of the machine shops, it is immediately applied. 

One of my old friends, J.C. "Bud" Mars, who has been with aviation since its infancy....taking his first trip aloft in 1892 in a hot-air baloon [[sic]]....thinks that aviation has made enormous strides in the few years it has been possible to fly heavier than air machines. 

Bud Mars, in company with Captain Tom Baldwin, shortly after the turn of the century, built the first dirigible ever constructed in this country. He has been closely allied with aviation ever since and he says that