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So much for the economical and political aspects. We now turn to the scientific and technical viewpoints in which the M.I.T. Alumni are perhaps most interested. The engineering progress of the future will be towards using greater power from lighter engines using less fuel. We should be able to get greater speed and greater range of operation from the same amount of fuel, yet double our present carrying capacity when we design our future aircraft. Cost of operation will, thereby, decrease.

Probably the most interesting and significant technical development of recent years in any form of transport has been the contract let several months ago by five air lines for an experimental model of four-engined, 40-passenger transport. The air lines joining in the financing and development of this experimental plane are: American Airlines, Eastern Air Lines, Pan American Airways, Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc., and United Air Lines. The resulting finished product, of course, would be available to other air lines at a cost considerably less than otherwise possible. This marks the first time the air lines have consolidated the experience of their engineers, pilots, and technical and traffic advisers to develop an experimental plane to meet the needs of the future and obtain an airliner with sufficient carrying capacity to insure profitable operation.
 
The signing of the contract followed months of conferences between the air lines and leading aircraft manufacturers to whom specifications were submitted and from whom bids were received. Specifications call for a plane weighing 25 tons fully loaded, with a top speed of 230 miles per hour and a cruising speed of 193 miles an hour, using 60% available power. The plane will have a wing span of 140 feet, an overall length of 95 feet, and a height of 20 feet. There will be four 1,000-horse power engines. The landing speed is not to exceed 65 miles an hour and the plane is to incorporate the latest features of design, construction, and navigation aids. The passenger cabin will be 40 feet long and 10 feet wide, fitted with 20 upper and lower berths with separate dressing rooms for men and women. The plane is to be capable of carrying 20 passengers and two tons of express and mail on long-distance flights, and on shorter trips 40 passengers and cargo can be accommodated. The present 10- and 14-passenger transports will not economically care for the business in prospect for 1938 when the four-engined type plane will be in service, if it meets specifications.

Approximately half a million dollars will be required for the one complete experimental airplane. If each of the five air lines had separately undertaken development of such an airplane it would have meant an additional expense to the air lines of approximately $2,000,000 —— the cost of four additional experimental airplanes. It is apparent that even if five experimental airplanes had been started simultaneously, the performance, as shown by the plans of different manufacturers, would have been substantially the same. The $500,000 cost of developing the one experimental four-engined airplane and the subsequent cost of approximately $200,000 to $250,000 per airplane, could be accomplished only by the joint enterprise of these five air lines. The scope of the undertaking is such that individual development of this project would have sapped the financial resources of any individual air line.

The resulting product —— and this is of major importance —— will be interchangeable between air lines. In this the air lines have torn a leaf from the railroad book, in the latter's interchangeability of Pullman and freight cars. The peak season for New York-Florida traffic is the slump season for other routes. In the summer, the New York-Miami operation does not require, nor can it use profitably, the transports needed in the winter. That operator, therefore, can lease the uniform transport plane during peak season from one having a surplus of equipment and vice versa.

Progress is so rapid in this business, that this pending four-engined Douglas, before it is in operation, will probably be made obsolete by the design of some other manufacturer. I am convinced that "putting all the eggs in one basket," as in this case, will stimulate rather than retard design and construction of different and advanced types of airliners. The standardization of parts and accessories in the new Douglas will be an appreciable factor in keeping costs down. 

Dependability is more important than speed —— speed is useless without it. Scheduled trips lose their meaning if the airplane cannot keep up with the clock the year round. Adequate structural strength and dependability is the first virtue of an airplane. An airplane must meet, and does with complete safety, the worst strains it is likely to suffer. The science of designing aircraft and aircraft engines has for years been so advanced that structural failures practically never occur. Such interruptions as do occur are usually caused by minor accessory failures rather than by structural failure. 

Although all development of any new form of transportation, and in fact all new developments themselves, are subject to possible hazards, the public accepts these hazards as a part of the price which must be paid for all such forward steps. We must so conduct our research and our experimental work that the probability of a repetition of an accident will be reduced to a point which, if not vanishing entirely, may be considered as acceptable in comparison with the promise of useful service.

Airways and airports are, of course, necessary adjuncts to the airliners. Airways, incomplete in their construction, have been federally provided and maintained with but few exceptions. It might be well to define just what these facilities are fundamentally: An airway is a route commonly used in air travel, usually officially designed, mapped, marked, and provided with some aids to air navigation; an airport is a landing field intended for regular use as a transfer point between air travel and travel by land or water, and provided with the necessary facilities. 

Since these airways are utilized almost entirely for the facilitation of interstate commerce and for the use of private flyers and the Army and Navy, as well as air transports, it is proper that the Federal government continue to provide these facilities rather than to depend upon states and municipalities or private enterprise. In Great Britain there is a law to the effect that 

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