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AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY ONE MISSION OF THE AEROPLANE

(By C. Oren Smith)

Probably the most important and most lucrative employment of the airplane commercially at the present time is aerial photography.
Airplane engineers are recognizing the importance of having all machines built so as to be able to accommodate all sizes of cameras up to 18x24 C. M.  An outward mounting is provided for the camera from which oblique and meridian pictures may be taken.  It is said that a plane may now be purchased completely equipped with camera cradles ready to start out on a photographic expedition.
The local aircraft company, which is to be incorporated next month, will have a photographic department.  Investigations and study is being made by the company into the aerial branch of photography.  They hope to specialize, in a separate department, in photographic mapping, and the taking of obliques for sale.
The Airco Company in England have sold over a quarter of a million of aerial pictures in three months.  The Curtiss Company and the Inter-allied Aircraft Corporation of American are taking an active interest in this, the most promising and profitable end of the aeronautical commercial business.
The uses of the Aerial Camera are many and varied.  This art has developed to such an extent that terrain and cloud effects may be caught and reproduced for study.  At ten thousand feet, on a clear day, by overlapping, a strip of territory 125 miles long and 6 miles wide may be photographed in one flight with one loading of the camera.  For the purpose of making a mosaic for city planning, for architectural work, for the post card industry, for calendar art work, and for the recording of historical events, such as parades, unveiling of statues, open air conventions and theatres, the aerial camera may be utilized.
Summer homes may be reproduced by obliques from the air.  Every municipality should have its civic buildings, parks, playgrounds and public property photographed from the air.  These pictures are in the true sense of the word pictorial and may be classed as works of art.  Such pictures as these could be sold for $1000 each, which was verified by a wealthy gentleman on Long Island who stated that the paid $1200 for an oblique of his chateau in France.
The camera for aerial moving picture work is also very much in evidence, and for contract work covering baseball and football games, and outdoor dramatic work for the film producer, it would be valuable investment for the aerial company.
Modern invention and late developments have placed the aerial photograph within the reach of all, and at the same time presents a profitable field for the operator.